The evil of the east : or truths about Turkey

The Evil of the

Kesnin Bey.

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THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

KESNIN BEY.

THE

EVIL OF THE EAST;

OR,

TRUTHS ABOUT TURKEY.

KESNIN BEY.

LONDON:

VIZETELLY & CO., 16 HENRIETTA STREET,

COVENT GARDEN.

1888

SRLF
URL

CONTENTS.

Preface . . . . . . ix

CHAPTER I.

A traveller's first IMPRESSIOXS. DISEMBARKATION AXD

DISENCHANTMENT. THE DOGS OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICERS AND BEGGARS. FUGITIVE

THOUGHTS ABOUT GALATA TOWER. — THE DEFILE OP
NATIONS ON KARAKEUY BRIDGE . , 1 7

CHAPTER II.

ISLAMISM. POLYGAMY J DIVORCE ; REPUDIATION. WHAT A

WIFE COSTS IN TURKEY. FANATICISM. A DAY AND A

NIGHT DURING THE GREAT FAST. COGNAC AND CON-
SCIENCE ..... 33

CHAPTER III.

THE TUUKISH PEASANT — HOW THE AUTHORITIES PROTECT
THE CULTIVATOR. — IS AGRICULTURE IN A FAIR WAY
TO SUCCESS 1 — HOW BRIGANDAGE THRIVES IN TURKEY. —
ABSENCE OF MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. . 52

VI CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV.

THE TURKISH OFFICIAL.— HOW HE OFFICIATES. — SALARIES
THAT ARE CHIMERICAL AND SALARIES THAT ARE FABULOUS.
THEORY AS TO THE UTILITY OF BAKSHEESH. — BUDGET-
WEEVILS. ..... 80

CHAPTER V.

THE INTERIOR OF A GOVERNMENT OFFICE. — PROFILE OF A
MINISTER. — ETERNAL VACATIONS. — THE ART OF OBTAIN-
ING CONCESSIONS AND OF NOT PROFITING BY THEM 104

CHAPTER VI.

THE TURKISH SOLDIER. — HIS VIRTUES ARE HIS OWN; HIS
FAULTS HE GETS FROM HIS SUPERIORS. — THE GERMAN
PASHAS. HEROES IN TATTERS . . . II 7

CHAPTER VII.

MYSTERIES OF THE HAREM. — A TURKISH FAMILY. — OTTO-
MAN CIVILITY AND OTTOMAN COOKERY. — A PLEA FOR
EUNUCHS . . . . . 125

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PERSIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. — VALIDE HAN — THE
BLOODY FESTIVAL OF HASSAN AND HUSSEIN . I 44

CHAPTER IX.

TURKISH FINANCE. — CUSTOM HOUSE OFFICIALS. —THE SARRAF
NUISANCE. AN EMPIRE FOR SALE . . 1 52

CHAPTER X.

THE TURKISH POLICE. — WHAT IS A TOWN WELL PROTECTED BY
POLICE ? — INSURANCE COMPANIES AGAINST MURDERERS. —
SPIES LARGE AND SMALL. — DRAINS AND DISEASE. I 72

CONTENTS VU

CHAPTER XI.

CHRISTIANS IN THE EAST. — ARMENIANS REAL AND SHAM.

THE FUTURE OF ARMENIA . . 191

CHAPTER XII.

THE GREEK : ANCIENT AND MODERN. WHAT EUROPE EXPECTS

FROM HIM AND WHAT HE EXPECTS FROM EUROPE.

PROGRESS MADE BY THE NATION SINCE THE WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE. FORCE OF PATRIOTISM AMONG HE-
LLENES . . . . .206

CHAPTER Xin.

THE JEWS IN TURKEY. RE-EMIGRATION TO PALESTINE.

SHADY TRICKS PLAYED UPON FOREIGNERS. JEWS WITH

REAL AND SHAM NOSES . . . 219

CHAPTER XIV.

THE LEVANTINES ; OR THE WEST IN THE EAST. THE BOARDS

OF GREEN CLOTH IN PERA. — STUCCO FINANCE AND PASTE-
BOARD ARISTOCRACY .... 232

CHAPTER XV.

EUROPEANS IN PERA. "THE PENITENTIARY COLONIES."

WOES OF THE PERA LANDLORD. WHY THE EUROPEAN

CONTINGENT IS REDUCED . . . 244

CHAPTER XVI.

PROGRESS OF GERMANY IN THE EAST. GENERALS AND

MINISTERIAL COUNCILLORS. GERMAN SOCIETY AND

GERMAN SOCIETIES .... 253

CHAPTER XVII.

THE FRENCH IN THE EAST. . . . 269

vui CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVIII.

PERA AND PEROTES. — TURKS AND TOMBS. — MUSIC AND
THEATRES. — HOW THEY DANCE IN PERA . 284

CHAPTER XIX.

SWINDLING AND SWINDLERS IN PERA. — BOGUS BORDEAUX. —
THE ART OF IMITATION. SCENT, CHEMISTS AND QUARAN-
TINE.— IN THE BAZAARS . . . 2q8

CHAPTER XX.

THE LOCAL PRESS. — JOURNALISTIC TROUBLES. — THE LEECHES
OP THE PRESS BUREAU. — CENSORSlftP AND SENSELESS-
NESS.— now BOOKS AND PLAYS ARE EDITED IN TURKEY.
CUSTOM HOUSE CRITICS AND THEIR LITERARY IN-
STINCT . . . . .312

CHAPTER XXI

THE FUTURE OF TURKEY ; WHAT WILL IT BE ? — POSSIBLE RE-
CONSTRUCTION OF A GREEK EMPIRE. — FROM MOSCOW TO
8TAMB0UL. — THE BANQUET OF NATIONS. — THE EVIL OF
THE EAST DRIVEN FURTHER EASTWARD . . 322

APPENDIX ...... 328

PREFACE.

The East ! A magic is in the very word, that suggests
fairyland, a paradise upon earth that we have loved in
dreams and would fain affect in reality.

In fancy we see the blue waters of the Bosphorus glancing
in sunlight, with grey and pink marble kiosques on either
side ; the hills above them covered with dark cypresses,
witli mimosas and balmy pines. Like giant lances the
slender minarets stand out in sharp relief against the sky,
while frail caiques dart ceaselessly across the azure stream,
their oars liglitly touching its surface, as lightly as the
wheeling gulls that brush it with their wing.

On shore a medley multitude forever files past, a throng
of strange types taken from all points of Europe, from
Asia, from Africa, in dresses broidered with silk and gold.

X PREFACE.

and gay with many a rare and radiant dye. On all sides a
very Babel of tongues is heard, and under the sombre
vaulted bazaars the garish clowd moves on to the dim
lighted mosque, where on richly-woven carpets from
Smyrna or Bokhara the faithful kneel in prayer near
lustrous columns of smooth porphyry and granite. See
there, the fair Circassian girls, with eyes like flaming
coals beneath their filmy yashmak ; their talk in Turkish
is as the language of birds, so soft, so caressing to the ear
is it ; and yet harmonious, vibrating as the chords of a lyre.
And there, too, are the Sultanas, those mysterious beings
who taste candied rose-leaves under the shade of broad
leaved platana trees beside white marble fountains most
rarely sculptured, while, as an evening mist across the
leafy gardens of their retreat, the aromatic fumes of
Lattaquieh or of Yenidjeh forever float.

The East ! it is the sun ; a globe of ore in fusion ; gilding
with its rich rays each cupola and spire ; touching each
roof with gold ; lighting up each window at Scutari ;
shooting its flaming arrows into the deep waters of the
Bosphorus ; lending fresh lustre to the crescent that tops
all the most stately buildings of the city. The East ! we
may liken it to the moon ; to white Luna walking in her
clear heaven, on some voluptuous tranquil night, amid the
imposing hush and silence of created things ; it is the cool
night-wind that carries with it the perfume of roses which

PREFACE. XI

in clusters hang above the swift dark Bosphorus stream.
Yes ; the East is all that ; it is more ; it is a poem, ever
changing, ever new ; a poem, visible, tangible, whose resist-
less charms possess the soul with subtle unimagined
languors.

Such is the East ! In such wise has it been pictured by
many famous writers ; rare spirits of tine temper and
exquisite imagination. They spent there a few weeks of
enchantment and in tlieir first fervour recorded in feverish
terms their feelings when in this trance of ecstacy.
Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Theophile Gautier, Gerard de
Nerval, Madame de Gasparin, Edmond About, all these
succumbed to the spell.

Yes ; the East is in truth such as these writers viewed
it and described it ; all tliat, but foi" a brief while only ; its
poetry is for the tourist who passes by, for the traveller
who goes on his way, regretful, remembering.

For him who remains in the country, who strives to
study manners, customs, who seeks to analyse the truths
that underlie all this poetry, it is something far different.
The East is fairyland, perhaps ; but take good care never
to spoil the charm by going behind the scenes. What
change, what disillusion awaits you, in such case! Before
the keen, stern gaze of the psychologist or the student of
practical economy, all these fine outward shows give place
to shameful realities ; what had before allurement now

Xll PREFACE.

provokes repulsion ; the sense of deception strikes you to
the heart and is as gall and wormwood in the mouth,
then it is that one perceives hi how far this fair land has
been spoilt by the men who inhabit it ; this land so rich,
so fertile, yields nothing but misery ; this clear, pure sky
only covers horrors ; in these white palaces, dark crime has
lodging, and in the midst of calm Nature, hypocrisy, selfish-
ness flourish and take root. Mixed with the delicate
perfume of jasmine, one may scent the foul odours of
corruption.

It is, in truth, a pnople that is falling to decay in these
marble mansions and at the side of these blossoming trees.
Disorder, greed, ambition, vice, crime, all that mixes like
the muddy inland streams that add their filthy tribute to
the clear noble waters of the Golden Horn. In proportion
as an observer looks deeper into the depths of life at
Constantinople he stands aghast before this rottenness
which seems limitless, which has so battened upon the fair
body that now only the semV)lance of life is left.

The authors whose names have just now been quoted
were not insensible to this reaction. They saw the reality,
felt the disenchantment, but would not stay to consider it.
It is told of one shrewd epicure, that when visiting
Constantinople he refused to come on shore, but preferred
to contemplate the city's loveliness from the deck of his
yatht. As a prudent dilettante^ he feared that landing

PREFACE. Xlll

might create for him too cruel a deception; and so he
chose rather to preserve all the pristine freshness of his
dreams about the place. Other authors, less circumspect,
have soon crossed the threshold of disenchantment, but
when face to face with astounding revolting realities, they
turned away their eyes, exclaiming : " Do not spoil the
East for me ; let it be mine still as I imagined it ! " . . .
This note of disenchantment is specially remarkable in
the last chapters of De Amicis' book. Doubtless, in the
back slums of Stamboul or of Pera, he met the real East
face to face. Some unlooked-for episode ; some grim
anecdote told to him at niglit by friends ; things casually
noted in the day, all these were forced to break the spell
and to plant within him the gernis of unbelief. When he
ends his book, it is with a tinge of disgust that contrasts
strangely, ironically, with the note of enthusiasm of
his first days in the city. Nausea overpowers him ; and
he hastens to depart, so as to avoid the necessity of
destroying his manuscript. The truth, indeed, is this,
that the magical aspect of the city is but as a mask to
hide the melancholy picture of a people in the last stage
of decay. Social depravity, corruption, immorality, and
enervation of character have sufficed to make both Mussul-
man and Christian rotten to the core. To-day, thfe taint
is everywhere ; all have it ; it is not an empire that is
breaking up ; -it is a soc-iety that is perishing.

XIV PREFACE.

Often in ray mind I have likened Constantinople to
those women of pleasure, attractive, alluring from without,
with smooth, clear skin, bright eyes, and pearly teeth ; but
their beauty is false ; and from within a hidden malady
saps their blood and transmits its poison to their lovers.

This dreadful malady, so common in Constantinople as
to be almost endemic, the Turks, with touching naivete.
call le mal rangais. We would point out to them that
this scourge had its origin in the East ; our ancestors
brought it back with them as a souvenir of the crusades
and of their sojourn in the Land of the Crescent. The
French evil is really the Eastern evil, like leprosy, like
cholera, like typhus, and many another infectious disease.
Thus we commit a legitimate act of self-defence in re-
naming it the Evil of the East, and in letting this title
serve as the theme for our study in social and oriental
physiology.

Thousands of times one has spoken of the Sick Man,
but one has never ventured to state precisely the cause of
his sickness. Such is the task that I set myself in this
book. The consultation exacts a certain boldness, frank-
ness of language. It also requires that firm will that
refused to let the voice of truth be stifled by protest or
recrimination.

Dreamers in plenty have sung the charms, the allure-
ments of the intoxicating East. We must now go deeper,

PREFACE. XV

we must probe the core of things, plunge the scalpel into
the quivering flesh, lay bare the gangrenous sores, and
reveal the causes that must make death imminent. Not
the Ideal, but the Real engages us ; we must quit the
East of our dreams ; we must enter the East of reality.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

CHAPTER I.

A traveller's first impressions. DISEMBARKATION AND

DISENCHANTMENT. THE DOGS OP CONSTANTINOPLE.

CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICERS AND BEGGARS. — FUGITIVE
THOUGHTS ABOUT GALATA TOWER.— THE DEFILE OF
NATIONS ON KARAKEUY BRIDGE.

Ere long the tourist will be able to arrive by the
Oriental Express at Stamboul terminus, being well nigh
worn out with the tedious journey from Adrianople to San
Stefano. Giving up his ticket to an official in uniform as
he leaves the station, he will find the usual cab, and the
usual cabman waiting outside to transport him to his hotel.
This will seem commonplace indeed, though by such a
method of approach to the city he will have avoided the
horrors of boarding the steamer at Varna, the inevitable
sea-sickness in the Black Sea and all the irksome delays of
quarantine. But on the other hand he may feel sure that
in this way he has lost at least one half of all the charm of
his journey.

Truly, nothing is more marvellous than the arrival at
Constantinople by way of tlie Bosphorus ; and it is this
B

6

i» THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

route that the true tourist must ever prefer, if he be a
real traveller, not a personally conducted one.

After a night on the Black Sea, the Austrian Lloyd
steamer at dawn reaches the mouth of the Bosphorus. All
the passengers, be they well or sick, scramble on deck, for
the scene that opens out before them is perhaps the most
beautiful in the world. It was here, at this point, that
an English General once said to me, "Now sir, no more
talk, no more questions ; open your eyes as wide as you
can, and take in impressions that during your whole life-
time you will never receive again."

Passing the Symplegades rocks, whose fame lives in the
legend of the Argonauts, the steamer enters this strip of
sea, with its impetuous current, that divides two conti-
nents. The long files of villas (yalis) against whose marble
steps the blue waves break to foam ; the irregularly built
houses with arched windows guarded by wooden lattices
and iron gratings, behind which, in fancy, whole batteries
of bright eyes seem to lie in ambush ; the gardens,
fragrant and shady with blossoming trees, with roses and
glycinas that lean over the hedges and shake down their
scented glories on to the eddying stream ; the graceful
minarets placed here and there along the route ; the low,
brown hills above, crowned with dark cypress, brushwood
and pine ; all these things in harmony form one grand
panorama that rivets the traveller's gaze, and that, once
viewed, he can never, never forget.

There, on the right, is Buyukdere, and farther, Therapia,
summer resorts, these, of diplomacy and its flunkeys, and of
all the would-be aristocracy of the Turkish capital. There
is the Giants' Mountain, in majestic outline against the

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 19

sky, and there, poised on rocks, the towers of Rounieli and
Anatoli Hissar. On the" opposite hank stands the exquisite
marble palace of Gueuksou, set like a white jewel to mark
the entrance to the famous valley called "Love's Tourney."
Here, in this romantic spot, the fair Turkish dames
assemble on every Friday in autumn. Wrapped in their
bright-hued feradjis, they walk or sit in groups on the
emerald turf and sip sherbet in the green shade of plantain
trees. See yonder, Bebek, with its picturesque fleet of
fishing boats beside leafy gardens. Near it lies Arna6utkeui,
the bright little village by the waters' edge which but a
year ago was wrecked in a night by fire. Now Beylerbey
is reached — a grand palace whose chiselled marble front
is reflected in the stream as by a mirror of steel. This
sumptuous mansion for monarchs lies desolate to-day ;
silken hangings veil its broad windows ; on its interior
splendour no eye now looks; and of the rare and costly
menagerie attached to it in the days of the strangled Sultan
Abdul Aziz nothing remains save one superb tiger that,
wearied and lonely, regrets the vanished day when the
Padishah would give him a minister's bones to crunch.

When this point is reached, steamers in plenty meet the
view ; and caiques stud the water as one nears the great
city. Suddenly it appears like some goddess, voluptuously
stretched at length along the horizon, framed on the one
side by the European faubourgs from which rises the
Galata Tower, and on the other, by the holy town of
Scutari. Further in middle distance one sees Kadikeui,
the ancient Chalcedon ; and in the distance the snow-
powdered peaks of Mount Olympus with the azure sea
of Marmara to the ri^ht.

2 0 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

As a centre-piece to the picture is Seraglio Point with
its array of kiosques, of domes and cupolas, and its high
crumbling walls, the barriers of this time-worn citadel of
Sultans, where many a dark deed of blood and lust has
been done. Hard by the palace is San Sofia, with its four
minarets that speak to us of the sumptuous, turbulent
period of Byzantine rule and empire. And on the Seven
Hills thousands of wooden houses are grouped, whose tints
of delicate brown or burnt-out red all blend into one har-
monious stripe of colour, and above them the minarets like
alabaster lances show clear in the cool grey atmosphere at
dawn. Below, at the foot of Stamboul, the Golden Horn
extends its surface which is thickly covered as with a
net-work of interwoven masts and rigging.

As the steamer drops anchor, she is on the instant
assaulted by a mimic fleet of pirates in the form of
shouting boatmen, ragged porters, and servile interpreters,
who make the unfortunate traveller their prey, pounce
upon his luggage and would without scruple tear him
asunder into four pieces, if from each piece baksheesh were
obtainable. Why of course, a tourist who arrives for the
first time at Stamboul not knowing the customs, nor the
language nor the money of the country, of course such a
person is a lawful prize, a very mine of riches unexplored !
Young couples on their honeymoon or lovers are most
sought after, for warm ardent hearts are ever generous !

To make such loud-voiced gentlemen hear, it is necessary
to be as noisy as they. One must swing one's cane in the
air in order to win from these imperious servitors respect.
The wisest plan is to choose the best looking boatman
from the mass, and to put yourself under his protection.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 21

Then watch with what brutal egoism the fortunate pilot
drives oft" other candidates for your favour as he takes
possession of bis passenger ! For henceforth the passenger
becomes his property — something little more than fare and
less than prey.

The boat brings you to the Police Bureau, where an
oflieial, who very often cannot read, scrutinises your pass-
port and your person. All is in order : you may pass on
to the Custoni-House, or rather float on, for the boatman
has not yet finished liis task. The guide who accompanies
you will now hint that it is customary to apply silver oint-
ment to the palm of the custom-house oflicer who examines
your luggage. This functionary has already appi-aised you,
taken stock of you, put his own rate of value upon you.
You tickle his palm with one or with two white francs;
at once all is simplified ; the visit to the Custom-House
becomes one of pure formality, or, to be more exact, the
whole formality disappears. This is your first insight into
Oriental life. The poor wretch of a Custom-House officer
stands lowest on the scaling-ladder used by those thieves
who, one and all, make resolute, impudent assault upon
your purse. Is he to blame 1 The luckless emplayt only
earns about a sovereign or tive-aud-twenty shillings a
month ; and even that pittance is not paid to him.

When franked through the Customs, your luggage is
hoisted on to the shoulders of a robust, swarthy Ai'menian,
a native of the interior, fi'om Trebizond or Sivas, and at
his heels you make your entry to the glorious capital of
Turkey.

The first thing for surprise is the squalid aspect of the
streets, the pavement being formed of irregular blocks of

22 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

stone of all sizes and all shapes that present a bewildering
succession of sharp angles and treacherous cavities. You
trip over the former, and you slide with unpleasant sudden-
ness into the latter. These pitfalls are full of black, fetid
water ; a swarm of pestilent flies broods there ; and the
pungent stink stifles you. A novice still, you give a side
glance and look down at the mass of ordure that lines the
thoroughfare ; at rotting vegetables ; offal over which dogs
snarl and wrangle ; here and there a cat with its head
beaten in ; an empty petroleum tin ; and many broken
bottles and pots. Curled up on the sun-scorched flagstones
lie numberless dogs, shaggy, mangy, diseased, and covered
with scars and bleeding sores. As you see all this, the van-
guard of the beggars makes its assault upon you, whining
in Greek, in Italian, in Spanish, and French. Such is their
insistance, that they pluck you by the sleeve and pat your
shoulder while uttering deafening wails both singly and in
unison. To escape their importunity you walk on as fast
as possible, taking swift strides across the narrow, dirty
streets, bordered by the rows of brothels which are near
the Custom-House at Galata. Brushing past evil-looking
louts who reek of mastic and garlic, you mount the dusty
fetid street leading up to Pera. On the heights above, fleas
in thousands and bugs in hundreds of thousands await your
advent, not to speak of mosquitoes, gad-flies and Dame
Nature's other instruments of torture.

By our drawing this pleasant picture for him, the reader
must not imagine that we hold a brief against the East. To
do so, were puerile. It is evident that Constantinople cannot
resemble either Paris or Vienna; the perpetual laisser alter
in all this is the essential feature in Asiatic life. One can

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 23

never hope to change the cardinal points, or to put the West
in the East. If ancient Byzantium had straight, even, clean
streets, well kept, well lighted, it would be as monotonous
as any other European capital. It would lose all its local
colour. All these petty signs of wretchedness should pro-
voke neither anger nor chagrin. The best way is to take
all with a light heart.

Still, there ought to be reforms ; and the public streets
might be made better and more presentable, if only the
municipal authorities had more money. All could be
washed and swept and garnished ; the question is merely
one of patience. The evil, the real evil, for which we re-
serve our criticisms, is the moral disorder, the soiled
morality, the putridity of character everywhere discernible.
On that score Constantinople is past cleansing ; and no
municipal broom nor any disinfectant could ever make the
city sane.

As regards the filth of the streets one might criticise the
utter nonchalance of the police and of the inhabitant.s, who
will let a dead dog lie rotting in the sun for ten days
before their door rather than trouble to pitch the carcase
into the Bosphorus. In Constantinople one would rather
be in a bad way than in a good way. Because this last is
only obtainable by taking trouble ; and no one will ever
take trouble.

To have an idea of what Constantinople might become if
in the hands of Europeans, one has only to compare it with
Alexandria or with Cairo. What a contrast ! Properly
to appreciate the difierence one must study separately each
detail in the organisation of the two countries. One must
inspect the quays, custom-house, docks and railways at

24 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Alexandria, and at Cairo, examine the methods of tele-
graph and postal service, see the telephones, the lighting,
drainage and system of street cleaning, and mark the orderly
dress and bearing of the soldiers and policemen. The
parallel is eminently disadvantageous to Turkey. Yet both
countries are Mussulman. Egypt, however, is the East that
goes forward with the march of Westyrn civilisation.
Turkey is the East that goes backward, that stands still.
The latter is like China ; the former like Japan ; and yet the
inhabitants of the vice kingdom of the Nile are far from
being a nation perfect at all points ; financial disorder there
is most lamentable ; and officials are not all of them above a
bribe. But Egypt has striven to copy the good and
valuable institutions of Europe ; Turkey rejects them as
much as she can. By a strange irony of fate it is the
Empire of the Pharaohs that has to pay over to the
Ottoman government a tribute of eight millions of francs.
The civilized country is the vassal of the barbarous nation.

No sooner has he reached his hotel and has been installed
in his apartment than the traveller eagerly sets out to climb
up Galata Tower which serves watchers on the look-
out for outbreaks of fire in the capital. Once at this
height, the charm begins to work anew and one gazes down
with untiring delight upon the huge city. Now is the
moment to say a word about the way in which Constanti-
nople is divided and to specify these divisions.

Briefly there are three main parts of the town : the
Turkish part at Stamboul, the European quarter at Galata
and Pera, and the holy quarter at Scutari. It is some-
thing to know this much ; but that is not enough, for the
ethnography of the capital is far more complicated.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 25

Thus, at Sfcamboul there is the vast Greek quarter of
Phanar, famed for the distinguished men born there ;
beside it lies Balata, a district inhabited by the Carait
Jews. There is another Greek quarter near Baloukli, a
monastery renowned for its little fish, half-red half-black ;
another at Psaniatia, and an Armenian quarter at Coum-
Capou. Similarly, at Galata it is the Greek community
that is in the ascendant ; but in this quarter the confusion
of nationalities is even more bewildering; while further on,
at Top Hane, near the Arsenal, the Turks are in a majority.
In Pera also tliere is a rich Armenian quaiter at Taxim,
and a Turkish one at Djhanguir Mahallesi. The valley
below Pera is lived in by paupers of all nations. This for-
bidding, foul-smelling dale, divided by a large open drain, is
called Kassim Pasha. A faubourg of Talmudist Jews with
a vast cemetery stretches away beyond, and closes this side
of the town.

From all this it is plain that the cosmopolitism of Con-
stantinople is extremely confused. To sum up : the city
is half Turkish, half Greek. Turks only form half
the population of Constantiiiople. Greeks and Armenians
make up most of the other half, their majority being rein-
forced by Jews and Europeans. The main elements are
Turkish and Greek ; i-ound these are grouped detachments
of all possible nationalities, some coming from Asia and
sent thither from Europe. All this heterogeneous mass
lives as it has lived for centuries, without ever having
become fused or melted into one. It is not a nation, not a
society, but a jumble of colonies, in juxtaposition the one to
the other, divided by insurmountable barriers of customs, of
language and of ideas. More than this : each community

26 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

professes to defy and disdain the others ; and all mutually
try to exploit one another as much as may be. The
Armenian speaks scornfully of the dishonesty of the Greek ;
the Greek again scorns the seYvility of the Armenian who
willingly courts and truckles to the Mussulman ; while both
shrug shoulders when talking of the Turk, who however
gives them as good as he gets, never losing an inch of that
serio-comic majesty under which he cloaks his laziness and
ignorance. The Levantine by reason of his European
descent thinks himself vastly superior to all. As for the
Jew, he is put at the bottom rung of the social ladder ; in
this hierarchy he hardly passes the level of the boot-black.

Constantinople is a city of mutual disdain. The hand of
every man is against his neighbour. Each person treats
his fellow as an enemy, or rather as a debtor. The Turk
never scruples to refuse to pay his debts to the European ;
the Armenian exploits the Turk, the Greek, and if need be,
the Armenian ; the Greek fleeces every one he comes near ;
the European does his best to keep up with such past
masters in the art of swindling, while the Jew with his dirty
finger eagerly seeks to scrape up a piastre or two here and
there, regardless of buflfets and snubbing.

To this centre of fraudulent traffic each nationality brings
its contingent of vice and dishonesty. Yet one may always
affirm that if the ignorance and sloth have been imported
from Asia, the vanity and demoralisation have come from
Europe,

Despite such race hatreds and rivalry of appetites, all
these herds pasture together in peace by a sort of tacit
compromise. Moreover, in Constantinople the matters
which most irritate men do not exist. There are neither

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 27

discussions as to political preponderance nor contests for
the triumph of certain social ideas. Political passions can
but be fomented under an absolute and theocratic govern-
ment ; social ideas imply a feeling for human solidarity.
All that in the East is as volapiick. Everybody is only busied
about getting rich ; each man's brains are like a little
money-box into which abstract truths by reason of their
greatness can never enter.

This social egoism presents at least one convenience ; it
leaves to each absolute and entire liberty. As no general
interests exist, every man is free to pursue and protect his
own private interests. Nowhere in the world is one as free
as in Turkey ; but this liberty is as great for knaves as for
honest folk ; it conies from the total indifference and apathy
of the law.

Provided he neither attack the Sultan nor religion, a
man may do pretty much as he likes ; but there is this draw-
back, that all evil-minded lucre lovers and thievish debtors
have every sort of facility to practise their villainy. For a
nation this is a situation of great peril, and, in a way, a
return to barbarism. What kind of people is that which
works exclusively for itself, which seeks to live at the
expense of others, and above all, at the expense of the
social organism ? To rob and plunder the Turkish Govern-
ment ; what a rare advantage is this ! What matter for
laughter are the many scurvy tricks played upon it by the
most knowing !

It is for this i*eason that Turkey in Eui'ope is fatally
condemned to disappear ; it will disappear, because it does
not exist. When you say the word " France," you mean
by that the collection of Bretons, Provencals, Normans,

28 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

and Flemish who are welded together by a solidarity of
interests, by common affection, by what is called national
feeling. The same with Germany and with Italy, whereas,
in Turkey, there is nothing of the kind. Turkey is not a
nation ; she is what Bismarck once called Italy, a " geo-
graphical expression."

A state composed of divers and of rival nationalities,
like England, like Austria, can exist on the condition that
it provides excellent administration for all, insuring at once
safety from within and greatness from without. 'Now,
administration in Turkey is nothing but an abominable
scourge. Public security does not exist, for brigandage
flourishes at the very doors of Constantinople, And for
the Ottoman Empire, exterior greatness and power are now
but a legend, an historic memory. If European Turkey yet
lives, she owes her existence to the rivalry of nations, all
alike tortured with lust to devour her. Let but one of
these nations set its finger on the feet of clay that support
the Ottoman image, and it will in that moment topple and
fall.

Let us go down lower from Galata Tower to the Kara-
keuy or Valid^-Sultane Bridge, this famous bridge on which
wondering tourists may watch all Oriental types go past,
and never weary of the sight. Here one may study the
nationalities of Western Asia, of the extremity of Europe
and of North Africa. We may term it the Bridge of
Nations. The eye is charmed by all this stir and move-
ment, dazzled by this array of bright colour and variety of
types. A thousand things create surprise and a thousand
questions rise to the lips of the curious. But those impres-
sions and sensations we leave to the traveller who has just

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. ' 29

arrived. Let us coldly, impassively examine men and
things.

See that Pasha of bestial mien and port, with his
dyed eyebrows and hollow eyes under their puffy lids.
He was once a Janissary. He has committed more
crimes than the worst of our gallows'-birds ; but, as many
men of high place are his accomplices, they have made
him governor of one of the most important provinces.
Naturally the old soldier was well versed in the art of
squeezing money out of his subordinates, and so has
managed to amass quite a fortune. In fact, he has quite a
respectable number of strong boxes all tilled with Turkish
pounds. He is a slave to the most absurd superstition.
In the morning when he rises he throws up his fez in the
air. If it fall on his head, that augurs well for the day's
doings; if not, woe betide that luckless wretch who appeals
to him for justice ! At night before entering his bedroom
lie draws cabalistic signs upon the floor and then leaps at a
bound from the threshold right into his bed, placed in the
middle of the room. These are not all his eccentricities.
He has a harem of youtlis, and gives all his minions
Government appointments whenever he can. It is this
individual who is at the head of the most civilized province
of the Empire. It is he who there directs its proper
administration, its finance and the true course of justice.

There goes another, gravely seated astride a pretty
mule. He is said to be not quite right in his head ; and
his sudden fits of fury suflice to scare away all his subor-
dinates. As governor of a province, he treated the people
with rare brutality and with unparalleled coarseness. To
this mental disorder, he adds ignorance of no common kind,

30 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

and a strange invincible difficulty of comprehension. See-
ing that for a long while he had been in the army, the post
was assigned to him of Minister of Agriculture and
Commei'ce.

Now another governor passes. When formerly minister of
finance, it was he who had to treat with the railway company
constructing the line joining the Constantinople- Adrianople-
Philippopoli route with that of Sofia-Belgi'ade- Vienna.
Like a prudent man, he drew up two Cahiers de charge,
one in conformity with the intentions of the Turkish
Government, and the other which entirely met the views of
the Company in question. Of course this Robert Houdin
submitted for ratification to the Sublime Porte the first of
these two contracts. As soon as the final text had been
adopted by the Government, hi ! presto ! with his magic
wand he transformed this Cahier de charge into the other
one ; and for this conjuring feat he received from the Com-
pany tlie modest fee of forty thousand Turkish pounds.
True, the Turkish Government later refused to ratify the
contract, but in order to punish this untrustworthy nego-
tiator he was appointed governor of an important province.

That elegant Circassian with a row of gold cartridge-cases
on his breast that rides proudly past on a superb horse,
strangled once with his own hand two poor young girls.
Their family were for bringing the murderer to justice by
having recourse to law ; but the Turkish Government like
to flatter and keep in with the Tcherkesses, for it is they who
furnish the Pasha's harems with the most beautiful maidens,
and they who put their ferocity at the service of the great.
All hope of obtainingjusticehadthusto be abandoned; the
assassin is at large, and lias resumed his former functions.

THE EVIL OE THE EAST. 3I

You fat Bulgarian going by can neitiier read nor write.
He is in all respects a savage. But he had the skill to
collect a small fortune with which he bought the goodwill
of certain Pashas at the War Office. And they nominated
him to the post of sheep-purchaser to the Imperial army.
By dint of adroit bargaining he has become a millionaire.
To-day, he has a palace at Stainboul and villas everywhere.
In his lecherous dreams he sees the forms of adorable
women. At once he sends for his painter and bids him
execute portraits that must in all points faithfully answer
to his description. When after repeated correction, these
pictures approach the ideal of which the Pasha dreamed,
Circassian panders of the most practised sort are despatched
to the Caucasus and to the shores of the Caspian Sea to
bring back for their lord the type of loveliness revealed to
liim in sleep. Quite like a fairy-tale, is it not ? When this
droll collector of girls goes by, every one bows; and he
receives salutes from those poor soldiers whom, to enrich
himself, he allowed to starve.

That Effendi in long black coat, cut Turkish fashion, with-
out collar or facings, was employed at the Ministry of
Finance. But he overdid his part as pilferer when the
last loan was negotiated ; and the Government, losing
patience, was forced to prosecute him. Happily he managed
to bribe his judges, and so lives now tranquilly on the
handsome estate which by theft he was able to buy.

That young namby-pamby with shifting, unsteady gaze
and loose lip is a species of Oriental parasite. He sings,
and plays the guitar ; he is much in request among great
personages for his artistic and other talents. For the
moment he is kept by an officer high up in the service.

32 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

whose shameful vices have their recompense in a terrible
affection of the spinal marrow. And this minion is now
on the look-out for another amateur of his charms. His
trances are just those of any^trull who has lost her keeper
and hopes to find some reliable customer.

Tliat big European, wearing the large rosette of the
Medjidieh, is a spy in the pay of the Imperial Palace.
His bluff manner and boisterous good humour are his pass-
port to all social gatherings. One is surprised to meet him
everywhere, and one asks by what door he got in and by
what window he will go out. On seeing him, everybody
suddenly talks in a whisper; and yet people accept the
hand he holds out to all. Although he talks a great deal
himself, one ear is always open to catch anything said be-
hind his back. He is obliging; he will cut out paper
figures to please the young folk, and is as zealous a match-
maker as any mamma with seven unmarried daughters.

There, in that victoria, goes an influential personage ;
he is the Sultan's head physician. He married a prostitute
whose favours every Perote could buy for ten francs. De-
spite her sudden exaltation to rank, this Messalina has not
retired from her profession, but uses the impotence and the
money of her old husband to house and enrich her young
lovers.

I assure you that, philosophising thus during a brief stroll
across the Bridge, one feels infinite consolation and refresh-
ment when one looks at the honest faces of the street-dogs,
forgetful of their manginess and revolting sores. At least,
if you stretch out your hand to them, they will eagerly re-
quite your caress with affection that is neither feigned nor
false.

CHAPTER 11.

I3LAMISM. POLYGAMY ; DIVORCE ; RKPUDIATIOX. WHAT A

WIFE COSTS IN' TURKEY. — FANATICISM. A DAY AND A

NIGHT DURING THE GREAT FAST. COGNAC AND CON-
SCIENCE.

When discussing the decadence of Oriental nations it is
customary to shrug one's shoulders and ascribe the evil to
Islamism. " All that is Mahommed's fault." The solution
has the advantage of being extremely simple ; then, again,
it flatters Christian self-respect, and they can so revenge
themselves for the epithet of "dogs " which the Mussulman
so liberally and so freely bestows upon them.

Yet, to us, this idea seems wholly superficial and conse-
quently inexact. Islamism, to our mind, is no more hostile
to civilisation than any other religion. Although we do not
intend to start any theological discussion which might
at once make our readers ready to skip, it is yet necessary
to say a word or two about Islamism, for it was Islamism
which created that strange reality we call the East. With-
out Islamism, the East would only be a cardinal point.
The sun on rising would meet the same men and the same
C

34 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

things that it saw when setting ; and for this meritorious
star that would surely be most monotonous. It is Islamism
which approved and consecrated the law of polygamy, the
characteristic trait in Asiatic morals. It is Islamism that
gave us the minaret, the main distinguishing feature of
Oriental architecture.

According to Mussulman ideas, religion sums up and
contains all ; politics, justice and learning. The enemies of
Turkey are always styled " unbelievers " ; a war is always
"a holy war " ; the soldiery fight under the green standard
of the Prophet ; the Sultan is at once sovereign and pontiff,
Padishah and Caliph.

The priests or ulemas do not form, as with the Christians,
a caste of sacred character. They are theologians, men of
learning. Ulema is the plural for alym, learned, derived
from ylm, science. They are also judges (cadis) or teachers
(hodjas). The sacred writings or cheriat form the basis of
all legislation ; only in proportion as the relations with the
West have grown more extensive, certain laws have been
added to these sacred documents that are just taken from
the French code. So to remark upon these is needless ; we
will only stay to note certain special points in Mussulman
law.

Assuredly the most disastrous of these institutions is the
law of vakouf or of foundations. By virtue of this law,
when a man dies childless, his property reverts to the
mosques. These mosques are in possession to-day of lands
the estimated extent of which, though varying, may be con-
sidered as one third of the Empire. Thus the mortmain
property exempt from taxation covers a very large part of
the dominions of the Sultan. It will easily be seen how

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 35

disastrous is such a system to the treasury revenues and to
the agricultural prosperity of the country.

These huge estates, made thus useless to commerce,
serve only to foster the sloth of a goodly portion of the
Ottoman nation. For the personnel of the mosques is
numberless. There are some that have several hundreds
of sheiks (doctors) khatifs, imams, muezzins, without count-
ing the mollahs who reside at the religious seminaries
(medresseli) or the families of all these priests, doctors and
professors with their servants and their slaves. All these
persons only consume without producing anything. This
is important to note ; for this defines the fundamental vice
of Ottoman society.

The Turk practises no trade, engages in no commerce.
There is a proverb which says. " The Frank has science,
the Armenian, commerce ; the Osmanli, majesty." Thus,
the Turk is majestic ; and, for him, that is enough ; only
unfortunately in our matter-of-fact day, majesty is not a
means of existence.

The Turk leaves all ti'ade to folk that in his eyes belong
to au inferior race. He declines to be either a hatter or a
tailor or a bootmaker, a grocer or a carpenter. Only four
professions does he deign to recognise as fit for him, viz.,
those of government official, soldier, priest or agriculturist.

The word "agriculturist" must not deceive us ; let there
be no illusion about it. "We shall see further on that the
Turkish cultivator, finding that the Government taxes and
imposts deprive him of all chance of profit, has adopted
for some time past the system of producing only just
sufiicient for his own personal consumption. If by any
chance there should be a small surplus of grain, he buries

36 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

it all against next year. So in this way he contributes
very little towards providing for the general consumption ;
and Turkey has to buy her wheat and flour from Hungary
and from Russia. But first and foremost, the Turk is a
functionary ; to be that is his life's dream. He knows well
enough that he will be badly paid ; and paid at rare inter-
vals, too. In fact, in each year he expects to lose a third
of his salary. No matter ; his one desire is to get an
official appointment, for that flatters his vanity and suits
his sloth. If tlie Turk as agriculturist produces little, the
Turk as functionary produces absolutely nothing. On the
contrary, he lives at the expense of the State.

So with the Turkish soldier. He ranks as a destroyer of
budgets. . The priest, again, gets his living by the law of
vakouf, and produces as little as do the other three. In
all cases, therefore, the Turk is always the consumer —
never the producer. He must get his living at the expense
of the Government taxes. Who then pays those taxes 1
The Greeks, the Armenians and the other lesser nationalities
in whose hands are the commerce, industry and agriculture
of the country. To put the whole thing into a nutshell ; it
is the Christian who maintains the Mussulman. The Turk,
plunged in his dreamy kief, watches the others work : —

" Ah ! qu'il est doux de ne rien faire
Quand tout s'agite autour de nous ! "

In his eyes, work is a misfortune, a punishment, a sign of
inferiority. Therefore he has a deep disdain for the activity
of the Christians ; he is even opposed to it ; and when he
perceives that it is suddenly developing, lie doggedly
thwarts it. " Do nothing yourself, nor ever let others do
aught either,'' might be taken as the traditional motto of

THE EVIL OF THE EAST, 37

Turkey. Hence all these vexing petty intrigues, all these
administrative absurdities and iniquities, which finally
disgust the most energetic and persevering persons who
come to the East to carry through some enterprise. Travel
through the country and wherever you go you will see
empty factories, deserted farms, and unworked mines. On
all sides, ruin and disorder — a veritable land of the dis-
heartened. Ask the natives and they will answer :
'' There, a Frenchman, or an Italian or a German set up,
and started this or that commercial enterprise. After some
years of perpetual hindrance, he gave up in despair ; he
was forced to quit a country in which the Government's
sole aim is to stifle and thwart all private enterprise."

Let us go back to the subject of vakouf. That sovereign
who should have sufiicient energy to abolish this institution
would render immense service to the country. Yet how can
one suppose that the Head of Religion would ever dispossess
that Religion, and so raise up against himself all the
hatred and bitterness of so powerful and vindictive a body
as that of the ulemas % Even in the last war, the mollahs
showed signs of rebellion. To bring them under, it needed
a n)ost terrible system of repression. Every night a certain
number of the guilty were secretly put into boats and,
bound hand and foot, were flung into the sea. The Bos-
phorus next morning threw up their corpses on the beach,
so revealing to the terror-stricken population the mysteries
of expeditionary justice. In Turkey, fanaticism cannot
be trifled with. Vakouf will live as long as Islamism
endures.

Another legal eccentricity may here be noted, viz., the
permission to reclaim through a third party without

38 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

indemnity the possession of an object or of property which
originally belonged to the claimant. This liberty is of
course grossly abused. In Turkey false witnesses are a
drug in the market ; you cfcCn buy them like melons or
gourds, and there is a lively competition among them.
Nothing is easier than to procure an obliging witness at a
modest rate, and this facility becomes greater when the
person to be fleeced is a foreigner. Thus on the simple
assertion of one of these hired witnesses a Turk can get
hold of any object that he desires. The system of obtain-
ing money by pledges becomes impossible, for the debtor
may take it into his head not to refund the sum borrowed
or to redeem his pledge. Usurers mutually profit by this
situation to impose the hardest of conditions upon needy
wretches ; there are bogus sales, and interests of one and
two per cent, paid weekly. In no country perhaps have the
usurer's tricks reached such a pitch of perfection. We will
not now dwell further upon the subject of Ottoman law, for
it is one to which we shall repeatedly have occasion to
return. Need it be added that venality among judges
tlirives and flourishes, and that the chances of the success
of a lawsuit are measured by the plaintiff's fortune ! Besides
venality, there is abject, limitless servility. It is well nigh
hopeless to try and contend with a high functionary ; if
that functionary be attached to the Palace, one is condemned
without a hearing. And in most of these cases, consular
agents and European lawyers do wisely when they advise
their compatriots to bear things patiently and hold their
peace

So much, then, for the judicial attributes of the ulemas ;
and there is little to be said regarding public instruction.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 39

For, despite the efforts made by Government, all is still in
its infancy. At Constantinople, besides the great Franco-
Turkish college of Galata-Serai, there are a few fairly good
Turkish schools of the elementary sort. In some of the
larger towns of the Empire others have been founded ; all
that they need are pupils to learn, and masters to teach.
These establishments have been started less with a view to
the spread of education than as a take-in, a sham to deceive
the eye. In the villages, again, all that a hodja has to do
is to recite or rather to chant to the peasant children the
opening verses of the Goran. This psalmody is always
accompanied by rhythmical swaying of the body, usually
associated with porcelain china figures on a mantelpiece ;
such oscillatory movement would seem to be indispensable
to Orientals, in order properly to digest the matter which
they teach and are taught. The Turkish language, grand,
melodious as it is to the ear, has this draw-back that it is
so difficult to read and write as to be almost inaccessible to
the mass. To know it even fairly, one must have studied
Persian and Arabic. Hence it comes that the lower classes
are doomed to hopeless ignorance ; while to most foreigners
the written language is wholly incomprehensible.

In Japan, a system has lately been adopted by which the
national language is transcribed in European characters.
This might be done as regards Turkish, also ; and a uniform
method of transcription of this sort would wonderfully
facilitate relations between the East and the West. The
Armenians have already realised this idea, for in Stamboul
several newspapers are published, that are written in Turkish
but printed in Armenian character. The main point would
consist in the choice of a uniform method of transcription :

40 THE EVIL OB^ THE EAST.

as a matter of fact, each granimarian has his own. Let us
take for instance the word heuyuk, great. It will be found
spelt in five difierent ways : bouyouk, houyuk, buyuk,
heuyeuk. There is no doubt that this innovation would
raise a regular tempest of opposition in the world of ulemas ;
they are ever fearful lest the Holy Books should be trans-
lated ; in fact, Europeans are now forbidden to take out of
Turkey a copy of the Coran.

All that we have just said about laws, only applies to
Mussulman civil and public life. Let us now clirab over
the wall of private life, a wall decorated at its ridge by
bits of broken bottles, and let us look closer at the organi-
sation of a Turkish family. In other terms, we will speak
of polygamy, an institution, which for unfaithful husbands
in the West is a cause for merriment and contempt. But
if the matter be coldly considered, there is no real reason
why polygamy should be cited as the main cause for the
decay of Oriental society. Polygamy, in principle at least,
is not a concession made to man's libertinism ; it is another
conception of family life, that is all. True, it maintains
the wife in a state of civil and social inferiority ; but from
a private point of view, the wife is mistress in her own
home. Just as in the West, she is the mother of the
family in every sense of the word.

Thus one must give up those burlesque ideas which still
exist in Europe as to life in the harems, which French
people with ludicrous persistency still call serais (palaces).
On the banks of the Seine or the Thames when a Turkish
family is spoken of, one imagines a fierce, turbaned Pasha,
wrapped in loose, gold-embroidered robe, armed with a
scimitar and smoking a narghile, while his wives, half-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 41

veiled in gauze garments, recline around him on rich
carpets in every voluptuous posture of temptation and
allurement. He is imagined as a sort of Laocoon, not girt
about with serpents, hut with the warm bodies and caress-
ing limbs of Odalisques ; in a word for Frenchmen, the Turk
is a man who can always afford himself the expensive
luxury of a vast lupanar.

Polygamy is quite another thing ; these little amuse-
ments are wholly contradictory to Mussulman law. By
that law, the liusband is obliged to provide each of his
■wives with a separate apartment where she may live with
her children and servants ; and each wife, no matter what
may be her age, her religion, or her nationality, is entitled
to the same treatment. The Goran in delicate fashion has
gone so far as to ensure for all wives a certain equality in
marital privileges, and it imposes upon husbands certain
obligations that may not unfrequently be difficult to fulfil.
Thursday night is the night set apart for the first wife ;
the husband must then do his best to give her a proof of
his conjugal fidelity ; this weekly passion is almost obliga-
tory. In all this, however, there is something evidently
matter-of-fact and humdrum ; here there are no voluptuous
orgies, no outbursts of unbridled sensuality. A Turkish
family consists of a series of separate families headed by
one husband.

From this system it is plain that the husband draws the
most advantage. "With you," said a Turk to me once,
" it often happens that your wife is in a bad humour or out
of sorts ; with us, we are always sure to find one of our
wives ready to give us a charming welcome." And another
added : " The European wife soon gives up being amiable

42 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

to her husband ; the Mussulman wife, on the contrary, is
always watching how she can captivate her husband,
for she is ever afraid of her rivals, and strives by all
means in her power to have influence over him, and so
ensure for her children a prosperous future."

Moreover, let us not forget that the Turk, the real bona-
fide Turk, who, by living in Constantinople has not been
corrupted, is essentially a family man. He is ignorant of
other pleasures than those of his own home. He never
goes to club, to theatre, or to concert ; no amusements
appeal to him, for the simple reason that few or none exist.
Married when quite young, at sixteen or seventeen, the
Turk conceives no pleasure, no happiness greater than that
of having many children. How far removed are we, then,
from the seductive odalisques whose pictures, in the East,
are only to be seen on biscuit-tins !

What we have just said relates to Turkish home life as it
was once, and as it still is, in the provinces. Needless to
say, that in Constantinople such patriarchal traditions
have speedily been altered ! Polygamy has there become
a sort of means to keep up the sinking flame of lust and
perpetually to stimulate the sensual faculties ; without
doubt this ceaseless over-excitement has greatly helped to
bring about the decay of. the race and to sap its energy and
force. Look at the Constantinople Turk ; he is no longer
the conquering hero of a bygone day, tall, brawny, robust,
with whom the Frankish proverb originated — " as strong as
a Turk." He is a sort of little, weedy voluptuary, lean,
shrivelled, doubled-up ; a prey to consumption and to
venereal disease.

As a logical consequence, polygamy when thus understood

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 43

and practised could not fail to destroy itself ; and this is
what in fact has happened. So soon as polygamy has no
pther end and aim than to create a large family with several
branches, and one husband as the trunk of the tree, it can
only be a means for ceaselessly supplying a man with new
wives ; it is domestic debauchery. It is far simpler as well
as far cheaper to renounce polygamy and to have recoui-se
to repudiation according to the easy simplified fashion of
the Mussulaian law. " Why," said a Turk naively to we
one day, " why, when my wife no longer does what T want
should I be forced to live with her 1 " In fact, polygamy is
becoming every day more rare ; and this for several reasons.

First of all, despite his affected disdain for Western civili-
sation, the Osmanli does his best to copy as closely as possible
Parisian manners and customs. Nowadays it is considered
very chic (the Turks have got hold of the word) to have
only one wife. Polygamy has gone out of fashion.

Then in the second place, since private and public business
is in so disastrous a state, the Turk, even if rich, cannot
meet the expenses which the separate maintenance of several
wives entails. Each wife must have a special set of apart-
ments and at least four or five servants. The cost is too
great a one for a Turk ; he prefers to have several wives,
but in succession ; and economy thus makes him a mono-
gamist.

Finally, the influence of the wife has to be taken into
account. In proportion as the young Turkish females
become less ignorant, they can the better appreciate the
value of the position acquired by their sex in the West ; and
they can then fight with all their force against an institution
that for them is at once prejudicial and humiliating.

44 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Immediately upon her betrothal a girl of good family exacts
from her future husband the promise never to take a second
■wife ; and on a betrothal night such a promise costs little,
especially in Turkey. What most threatens the happiness
of the young wife is the putting-away, not polygamy ; and
we must avow that the former is far more immoral than the
latter. Thus, as polygamy decreases, morality becomes
looser, and family-ties more slack. Cases of abortion
have now become formidably frequent ; the fact that a
Turkish wife is in a way exempt from the penalties of
Ottoman law only serves to favour such a crime.

The formalities of marriage and divorce are in themselves
simple enough. Before the wedding ceremony, the amount
of the bride's dowry is fixed and that of her indemr.ity, in
case she be put away. In villages, poor girls often get this
indemnity paid in advance, fearing that on the fatal day
they may not have any money left and be abandoned with-
out resources whatever. The bride's trousseau consists uf her
own linen, with a chemise and a veil, the bridegroom having
to supply her with Q.feradji or outdoor cloak, a mirror, soap
and napkins. Such are the main elements of the corbeille
de mariage that with the rich are extremely costly. The
newly-married pair I'eceive the nuptial blessing from the
imam ; and then the girl, covered by her bridal veil, is led into
the bridal chamber, and here she and her husband repeat a
special prayer, after which he may strip off the veil and
contemplate at will the charms of her who hitherto had
been half hidden from his gaze. Is there not much charm
and freshness in so simple a ceremony as this ? Surely it is
preferable to the bustle, humbug and grimacing which always
accompany weddings in civilised countries.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 45

So much for the good side of Turkish married life ; now
let us look at the reverse. To put away his wife, the Turk
pays her the sum agreed upon, and then from the imam he
gets a square piece of paper having thereon the religious
formula authorising the dissolution of the marriage. It is
then that the husband may make use of the consecrated
phrase: Avretim bosh ola, "Let my wife be free!" It is
only the husband who can ask for a divorce, and the claim
may be mutual for the following motives : joint consent,
insufficiency of money given for the wife's maintenance,
voluntary absence of the husband, his apostacy or his
impotence. This law of divorce which obliges the husband
to pay the dowry money, is thus an efi'ective weapon in the
hands of young wives of wealthy family.

By a ridiculous clause in the law, when a husband desires
to take back his divorced wife, she is bound first to wed
another man, if only for one night. Blind men are usually
chosen for this agreeable office ; so poor Belisariuses in the
East have now and again their little compensations.
Besides his four legitimate wives, the Turk may have slaves
if he likes, but he is obliged to marry any one of these who
bears him a child. Officially speaking, there is no longer
any traffic in white flesh ; and the slave bazaars have been
solemnly closed. But this is a trade that thrives none the
less. All about the Top Hane arsenal there are hans kept
by Circassians where pretty girls are for sale. A young
girl costs from 2500 francs to 3000 francs, but the price of
course goes as high as 10,000 francs and more. The
Circassian girls themselves are glad enough to get into such
establishments ; they prefer the easy life of a Turkish harem
to the dull miserable existence of their compatriots. In

46 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

these slave-shops they can recover from the fatigues of their
journey, and acquire that degree of plump sleekness which
(Orientals affect. So they go through a moderate course of
feeding up. Custom exacts t"hat every year during the
festival of Bairam, the Queen mother should offer a beautiful
slave to the Sultan. This example is followed by other
exalted personages. Tlie Caliph Abdul Aziz had thus as
many as 1200 women in his harem.

The Circassians who do the recruiting work for these
Ottoman girl-shops are base, blood-thirsty villains, dreaded
and detested by all the people ; but for all that they swagger
about the town with khandjar at side and pistols at belt,
proud of the protection given them by nympholeptic pashus
and other epicures in dainty female flesh. When reaching
Turkey, the sight of tramways and lamp-posts makes one
think that civilisation and progress have there got a hold.
But scratch, the Turk in his fez and overcoat, and you will
find the Turk in turban and caftan ; he is not civilised ; he
only pretends to be so ; he has only exchanged his pristine
rudeness for a seeming softness of manner.

What we have just said for polygamy we may repeat for
fanaticism, with which the Turk is so bitterly reproached.
But fanaticism has no whit helped towards the dissolution
of Oriental morality ; on the contrary, this sentiment is a
force for a nation, above all for a theocratic nation. It is
fanaticism which has made Turks and Arabs great. In the
believer who willingly deprives himself of all ; who bears
cold, hunger and fatigue without a murmur; who rushes
fortli to combat like a martyr and dies like a hero — in him
we have the most perfect type of the soldier who makes
empires great and strong. In a State where religion and

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 47

country are solid and immutable, fanaticism is the purest
expression of sincere patriotism.

Let us add that Turkish fanaticism, the hatred cherished
by believers in the Coran for all other religions is perfectly
logical. "We in no wise mean to make an apology for
Islam, but we can well understand why the Mussulman
believes himself superior to all other men. What is the
religion of Mahommed if not an exalted form of Deism based
on the conception of one Almighty and Eternal God, on the
doctrine of punishment and recompense in the life to come,
on equality, brotherly kindness, the protection of the weak
and the respect of lawsl It is a religion that admits
neither of dogmas, symbols nor mysteries, and, as regards
superstition, it is far behind the greater portion of Christian
sects. Thus the Turk naturally deems his religion a far
loftier, purer one than any other, because it is less material.
He is used to the clear, simple conception of one God and
one Divine law interpreted by inspired men. How can his
mind accept so complicated a dogma as that of the Trinity,
which forms the basis of all Christian religions ? What is
he to think of the mysterious doctrines of the Eucharist or
of the worship of certain mii-acle-working statues and
shrines? To him, this is but idolatry in its grossest form.
So it comes that all efforts on the part of Christians to con-
vert Mussulmans have been fruitless. But, on the other
hand, Islamisra makes numerous proselytes, chiefly in
Africa, where it soon replaces the religion of the locality.
Turkey's depression and enervation can thus never be attri-
buted to the doctrine of Mahommed. It comes from the
manners and the temperament of the Osmanlis, from their
sloth and ignorance. It is the fatal consequence of having

48 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

substituted a soft, sensual existence for the stirring life of
battle and conquest led by their ancestors.

Fatalism has largely helped to produce this enervation,
albeit such a doctrine is nowhere to be found in the Goran.
And does not the Gospel contain like teaching when we
hear that the lilies of the field, who toil not, neither spin,
are watched over and protected by that Almighty God
whose guardianship is the same and more for man than his
care for the birds of the air 1 The theory of the Mussul-
man Holy Book is no other than this, but the Turks have
known how to make it fit with their idleness and indolence.
" So God will ; inch allah/" is what they ejaculate on every
occasion ; and thus they avoid the trouble of making the
slightest effort. If things go wrong and they fail, they say,
"Thus was it written ; " and thus they save themselves the un-
pleasantness of making mutual reproaches. But as the good
God never took the pains to find them in clothes, in boots,
in sugar, or other necessaries, the Turks had to buy .these
things in Europe without ever trying to produce them
themselves. To such a pitch had this come, that Turkey
possessed tributary states, working for her and supplying
her with pocket-money ; in a word, she was a nation kept
by her neighbours. But these neighbours have to-day
recovered their freedom and shut their purse, so that, like
the grasshopper in the fable, the Turk finds himself in a
great fix. He has no money ; and he knows that he is in
capable of earning any.

Religious sentiment, like all other sentiments, has be-
come much weaker in the Turkish capital. The great fast
of Ramazan, when every believer ought to abstain from
drinking, eating or smoking during the whole day from

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 49

sunrise to sunset, is no longer strictly observed, except
among the poor classes. It has become a pretext for car-
nival orgies which are kept up throughout the night until
the dawn. During the day, if one abstain from anything,
it is from work ; the Turk sleeps all day because he has
been gormandising all night. During the month of Hama-
zan, administrative life in Turkey is at a stand-still ; the
public offices are opened at most for an hour or so daily, and
the officials never come there; the rickety machine suddenly
stops altogether ; there is no such thing as urgency, but all
important affiiirs are put oflF until after Ba'iram, a four-days'
festival that succeeds Eamazan.

As much might be said for the non-observance of the
Goran's law forbidding the use of spirituous liquors. Turks
publicly drink mastic, the absinthe of the Levantine, and
some can manage to absorb ten or twelve glasses a day.
Wine is also served at their tables, but they have a special
liking for cognac. To soothe their conscience they call it a
medicine which has to be taken for their health's sake and
their often infirmities. Many wine shops in Stamboul
gravely have the word " Pharmacy " put up in big letters
over the door. The window front is filled with Martell's
Three Star Brandy, (sham stuflf, all of it) imitations of fine
champagne, and base, sweet, fiery mixtures that pass with
the unsuspecting for curacoa and chartreuse. Poor deluded
Turks ! They style such vile concoctions " remedies," and
believe in their efficacy ! At some of these so-called
" pharmacies " one can buy nothing in the way of drugs —
not even a packet of bicarbonate of soda or a permyworth
of sulphate of magnesia. The other day I met a function-
ary just about to empty a huge tumbler of brandy, because,
D

5° THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

as he said, he had scratched his finger when getting out of a
caique. I surprised him not a little by affirming that cog-
nac was a remedy only of service for external use.

Even devotees delight to sacrifice to Bacchus with wine
and spirits, when they only get the chance. I well recollect
the copious libations of wine, beer and kirsch offered to me
once, by an amiable dervish ; and that in mid Ramazan.
This bout had its sequel when the imam of a certain mosque
astonished us by the prodigious quantity of champagne that
his snowy turbaned head could stand. Till then, we had
no idea of the faculty for absorption possessed by an imam.
The poor fellows, though, are far from being over-rich, and
one cannot blame them for profiting by any chance to play
the glutton and make a little money. If they could, they
would willingly sell the pillars of the mosques, the holy
carpets and the gorgeously embroidered tapestries that deck
their sacred buildings. In fact, this is done again and
again. At St Sophia, the imams worry every tourist who
comes there to make them buy little cubes of mosaic that have
been knocked out or that have fallen from the roof. Much
the same thing is done at St Mark's, Venice, only not by
priests, but by rapacious guides. The credulous delight to
hear that these bits of mosaic come from two indisputable
sources. Some are found in the sand at Phener Baghtch^,
where was once a Pagan temple. Others fall from the
vaulted roofs, and are carefully collected and preserved.
We should be only too glad to believe both these versions,
only let us cocfess that after no little exploration we were
unable to discover a single hodja at Phener Baghtche grop-
ing in the sand for the relics of a Pagan temple. And on
the other iiand, if little cubes of mosaic fall from the

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 51

vaulted roof of San Sophia, this is only natural and inter-
esting. How else would the herd of tourists be provided
with portable souvenirs'? In one little mosque that I
visited, the hodja actually insisted on my buying the entire
mosaic covering one of its cupolas. At Adrianople and
other towns, tourists have been able to buy the choice
plaques oi faience decorating the walls of the mosques. All
the houses of Europeaii residents at Constantinople are full
of such curiosities, which once upon a time were to be got
for a few paras. But prices have gone up, and for this the
English are to blame who in their passion for bric-a-brac
pay cash down, without ever troubling to bargain. A
philosophical Turk said to me once, when I remonstrated
witli him as to the commercial attitude of a hodja attached
to one of the mosques: "What's to be done? The poor
wretch only earns two pounds (or 46 francs) a month; and
he has got two wives ! "

Did not one of the late Sultans condemn to destruction
the magnificent walls of Constantinople, one of the wonders
of the East ] What end had he in view ? It was because,
through the sale of the materials, he hoped to realise a sum
of a hundred thousand francs to be spent in buying a
present for the Queen mother. It needed most energetic
intervention on the part of the British Embassy to prevent
this act of vandalism. Yes ; we must verily affirm that the
art treasures of ancient Byzantium are in safe and sacred
keeping !

After this archeological sigh, let us conclude by repeating
that, if the Mahommedans are in a ripe stage of decay, the
fault cannot be set down to Mahommed.

\

CHAPTER III.

THE TURKISFI PEASANT. — HOW THE AUTHORITIES PROTECT

THE CULTIVATOR. IS AGRICULTURE IN A FAIR WAY

TO SUCCESS 1 — HOW BRIGANDAGE THRIVES IN TURKEY.

ABSENCE OF MEANS OP COMMUNICATION.

"The Turk whom the use of power has not corrupted,
whom oppression has not debased, is certainly one of those
men who please most by a happy blending of good qualities.
Never does he cheat you ; honest and upright, he is true as
steel to his own folk ; extremely hospitable ; respectful yet
never servile, discreet, tolerant, benevolent ; and very kind
to animals." Such is the judgment passed upon the
Osmanli by Elisee Reclus, the great geographer; and it
were impossible to have said anything better or truer ; his
opinion agrees, moreover, in every respect with that of
those travellers who have made a close study of the East.

To find this Turk, however, whom " the use of power has
not corrupted," one must look for him in the heart of the
provinces, — never in the great towns. It is to him that
this praise applies ; but alas ! it applies to him only.

The most noteworthy traits of his character are probity

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. S3

and a dread of lying. In this above all things he is dis-
tinguished from the Turk of Constantinople, who cheats
and lies with really admirable impudence. He in no way
difters from the Armenian or the Greek whose pastime it is
to dupe the poor Mussulman yokel, and who laughs at him
into the bargain.

His sobriety is proverbial ; no European peasant could
st-and such frugality, nor subsist upon such simple fare as
coarse black bread and draughts of cold water. Upon this
the Turkish peasant easily lives. The dram-shop for him
does not exist. In his personal habits he is very clean, for
his religion exacts that he sliall often perform his aVjlutions.
For all that, he loftily ignores the simplest rules of health.
His home is a mere den dug out of the ground, without
furniture and void of windows.

In general, the Turkish peasant is a monogamist. If he
take a second wife it is because he wishes " to have a second
servant." But he treats this latter affectionately and
adores his children. One cannot too greatly praise his
kindness to animals. In many of the provincial districts
the donkey has the privilege of two days' holiday in the
week. This sentiment of gentleness, which does such
honour to a bellicose people like the Turks, is to be re-
marked throughout the entire nation. Thus, at Stamboul,
the inhabitants show great kindness to the vagabond
street-dogs, and they are pained to see brutal Greeks and
Levantines wantonly strike and kick the poor animals if
they lie in their path. So soon as a bitch has puppies they
lodge her at the side of the street, in an improvised kennel
matle out of an old box lined with straw and old bits of
carpet. At the threshold of most doors in Stamboul you

54 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

will find little paiiikins full of water, while, during Ramazan
the Turks provide food for all the dogs in their neighbour-
hood.

Let us here note a characteristic trait. If a young Turk
is in a mood to lash out, after having come in, say, for a
thumping legacy, he goes to the nearest baker's and buys a
quantity of bread which he distributes among the dogs of
the quarter. It is a great pleasure for him to see all those
beaming eyes, snuffling noses and wagging tails. The poor
brutes are so glad of a kind word or a pat, that their
expressions of gratitude prove often over-demonstrative,
for their muddy paws and muzzles are not very desirable
things, — albeit readily, honestly offered.

The Turk is generous ; he rarely refuses alms to a beggar,
and if unable to give it, he politely says, " Ynayet Allah ! "
May God help you ! This is certainly far more courteous
than to send the beggar to the deuce, as do Europeans.

The hospitality of the Turk is proverbial. So soon as a
visitor arrives, coffee and cigarettes are brought to him ;
and if he consent to stay, all that is best in the house is set
apart for his benefit ; but this is done with that innate tact
which avoids importunate questioning.

It will be seen that the Ottoman peasant has qualities
which prevent one from despairing as to the regeneration
of the country. When the gangrenous element that makes
the administration rotten shall have been removed, the
Turkish race will once more be fused, welded, and find the
wellsprings of its ancient vitality among the Turkoman
tribes that people the high table-lands of Asia Minor.

To all these virtues the Turkish peasant, of course, joins
imperfections. He is not an energetic worker. If he

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 55

delves, it is because he must ; and, so soon as he can, he
returns to his kef, never troubling, never dreaming about
his future position. His only care in producing is that his
family may live. Why should he do morel It would
never profit him aught. First of all would come the tithes-
collector, a veritable vampire who buys from the State the
right of that oppression and extortion wickedly practised
upon the poor peasant. Then, he has to submit to being
fleeced by the governor-general (vali), the prefect (inutes-
sarifj and sub-prefect (caimakani) ; while, if some exalted
personage happens to be travelling through the country
with his escort, he must be hospitable and find billet and
board for all, as well as for soldiers passing through the
village on their way to the depot. Such is the fear which
prevails among the peasantry at the news of the approach
of either " functionaries " or soldiers, that often they
abandon all and take refuge in the mountains until the
calamity be overpast.

There was once a governor who hankered after a farm
worth a good 25,000 Turkish pounds. He sent for the
proprietor and told him it suited his purposes to buy the
estate, but at a price which he himself would fix, viz.:
5000 pounds. The unfortunate owner made a wry face ;
but had to bow gracefully and accept this magnificent
offer, knowing too well what remonstrance or opposition
would cost him in the end. But this was not all. The
vali sent again for him, and actually rented the farm to
him at the modest rate of 2500 pounds ! Its lawful owner
said nothing, but submitted to this additional piece of
injustice. Finally, the astute governor exacted a further
payment of 2500 pounds, due, as he said, for repairs on

56 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

the farm, for felling timber, etc., etc. In brief, the lawful
owner was thus robbed of his property, without getting so
much as a single penny in exchange. But he dare not
complain; if he did, it woi?ld only make matters far
worse. Under these circumstances, of what use is it to
work for others 1 Of what use is it to improve each
shining hour and make the soil yield every year richer
fruit? One does as little work as possible; the earth is
sure to give just enough for one's needs. To quote a
practical instance, the use of manure is utterly unknown.
Instead of employing it to make the soil richer, the
peasants use it as a combustible ; and what a combustible !
From horse-dung and cow-dung women make strange sorts
of patties and cakes, which they dry in the sun and then
put away for winter fuel. Failing to find supplies either
of wood or of charcoal, they are forced to make use of this
filthy compound, which, when burnt, gives out a most
nauseous smell.

In Constantinople, every day one sees barges laden with
the refuse and sewerage of the city, which are calmly,
indifferently emptied into the sea at the entrance of the
Golden Horn. Each year some thousand francs' worth of
valuable manure are thus flung into the Bosphorus, taint-
ing, poisoning its waters ; and all the while the soil grows
more sterile through need of nourishment.

The Turkish cultivator, ground down by ruthless taxa-
tion, living from hand to mouth, having no one to teach or
to advise him, becomes of necessity thriftless and impro-
vident. He has neither the means nor the inclination to
save and be economical ; but he miserably vegetates, de-
prived of everything and leaving it to Allah to look after

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 57

his future. He is at the mercy of usurers who are the
veritable scourge of the provinces. Jews, Armenians,
Greeks, vie with each other in exploiting the poor innocent ;
and, hemmed in by these voracious harpies, the wretched
Turk is driven to accept their monstrous conditions. His
lionesty often forces him to spend his whole life in working
to pay off a skinflint creditor, who, each year manages to
hold the victim tighter in his toils, and spider-like, sucks
him dry to the very last drop.

To all this may be added the evils of conscription. By
a deplorable decree, it is the Mussulman alone who must
perforce serve as a soldier ; Greeks and Armenians are
exempted, on payment of a trifling tax yearly. With
regard to the future of Turkey, nothing more lamentable
than this system can be imagined. While from Otto-
man agricultural districts the best workmen are thus
called away, and thousands of fathers taken from their
starving families, the Christians are quietly allowed to
increase and multiply, improving their commerce and
enlarging their families. So it comes that in certain dis-
tricts the Greek element predominates over the Mussulman
element. Another law yet more deplorable is the one that
decides that all inhabitants of Constantinople, even Mussul-
mans, are exempt from serving in the army. Thus the
system of recruiting exclusively affects the Turkish agricul-
turist population ; to ruin it, to annihilate it, no better
means than this could ever have been found.

What a grievous time it is each year when the young
fellows have to "go for soldiers!" Most of them are
married and have children. They must leave all ; leave
their family in want and distress for three or four years.

5* THE EVIL OF THE EAST,

not counting the extra three in the reserve, the eighteen
years in the Landwehr, and the six more in the Landsturm.

Thus fardels of all kinds are heaped upon the back of the
poor cultivator. It is impossible to form a just idea of the
wretched state of agriculture among the Ottoman rural
population. Every year, almost, there is a dearth in tlie
land, and hundreds die of starvation. The terrible famines
of 1874 and 1878 will still be remembered by all ; and last
year at Adana, though exaggerated descriptions were
printed of it by an imaginative American missionary, the
drought was yet a very severe one. Immense tracts of
fertile land are left untilled. Outside Constantinople, out-
side any of the larger cities, the eye can only gaze upon
vast, lonely steppes. M. Tchihatchew registers an area of
600 square miles, out of which hardly 50 miles have been
cultivated. Wheat produce is only a fifth of what it ought
to be ; so that, to supply the towns, grain has to be
imported from Russia. The Turk does not even take the
trouble to grind this foreign corn himself. He prefei-s to
procure it in the form of flour, paying to Russia or to
Hungaiy the cost of grinding. Suppose that war broke
out : one would only have to blockade the entrance to the
Bosphorus and to the Dardanelles ; Constantinople would
then be simply starved out.

But not only wheat is wanting ; there is a lack of meat
as well. In all the valleys there is wonderfully rich
pasturage for cattle ; and yet no beasts are made to thrive
upon it. One never sees any fine oxen or cows. Beef is
almost a rarity ; milk costs more than it does in Europe ;
while the better sort of butter is imported from Italy,
another kind, more like wheel-grease, being supplied by

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 59

Russia, and grandly styled " Siberian Butter." Spread on
shoe-leather, it is efficacious.

In this country which furnishes the West with the finest
breed of horses in the world, the Syrian breed, one can
only find little stunted bastard horses without nerve or
staying powers. To provide the cavalry with mounts in
1866, Turkey had to purchase at a great cost 4000 to 5000
horses from Hungary.

Vineculture has somewhat improved, especially since
France increased her import trade in raisins. But wine
making is forbidden by the Coran, so poor Turkish
peasants can take no part in an industry that for them
might prove the most lucrative of all. It is exclusively
in the hands of Greeks and Europeans.

With his callousness, his resignation, or, if you will, his
fatalism, the Turkish cultivator lives patiently in the midst
of all these stings and arrows of outrageous fortune ; he
sufiers from them ; he succumbs to them ; but he never
dreams of looking for their causes and for their remedy.
These causes are : —

1st. The wretched organisation of the department of
agriculture.

2nd. The insufficiency of means of transport.

3rd. The insecurity of the country districts.

4th. Ignorance.

The Ottoman department of agriculture is a most divert-
ing institution. We will here make a silhouette of it, with
certain details ; and this will save us the description of
other establishments of the same ilk.

At the head of it, of course gravely stands the Minister.
He has so little to do, that about him there is little to

6o THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

say. He may be a lawyer, or a colonel to-day, and to-
morrow, an admiral, for, according to Turkish notions, no
special competence is required from any of the Ministers.
Thus you will often see men who have been in succession
governors of provinces, heads of the Post and Telegraph De-
partment, or Grand Viziers, suddenly made into Ministers of
Public Instruction, of Police, of Public Works, or of Finance.
The true impulse must of course come from the Director of
the Agricultural Department. And he belongs to that class
of Turkified Armenians about whom we shall have a word
to say later on. Puffed up by a stay of some years in
Paris in the midst of the Socialist effervescence of 1848, he
makes grand parade of his special attainments. It is true,
that while in France he followed a course of instruction at
two government schools of agriculture ; but for the good
repute of those schools be it said, that he always bravely
maintained his place among the lowest in the form ; and
his fellow students still have lively recollections of him, as
suffering, from an Oriental cancer of no common kind.

On his return to Turkey where all is a lie and a sham,
reputation as well as knowledge, this knowing person soon
saw what line to take and how, in the midst of universal
ignorance, he could make capital out of his famous sojourn
in France and of his brilliant career at two celebrated
schools of Agriculture. Instead, therefore, of risking his
renown by taking up practical agriculture, he preferred theo-
retical, administrative agriculture, for this last is far less
compromising. And, thanks to that dogged spirit of
intrigue peculiar to Armenians, he succeeded in making the
Turks invent a so-called Department of Agriculture and
then put him at its head.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 6 1

The Minister who set his seal of approval to the decree
founding this institution must verily have thought that a
new era of prosperity and progress had dawned for Otto-
man agriculture. Unfortunately the newly created depart-
ment met with the same fate as that of others. With
agriculture one had little to do ; but one had a great deal
to do with inti-iguing. The department, filled as it was
with persons less competent than its chief, soon became a
sort of hot-bed for jealousy and petty ambition. One ti'ies
for advancement ; another strains at a decoration ; a third
sighs for an appointment. Each endeavours to overset his
rival, to distance his fellow-runner in the match for place
and profit, but no one has ever had the courage to open a
technical book. If an important matter presents itself, he
is at once hampered, " got at," by someone who wants to
make capital out of it, or else in vanity to use it as an
advertisement for his " zeal and unflinching devotion " to
his Sovereign. As to the country's interests, as to the
advance of agriculture or the welfare of the peasant, not a
thought is given to such things ; the idea alone were enough
to dumbfounder all " zealous functionaries ! "

Should any technical difiiculty arise, the Director of
Agriculture sweeps it aside with matchless aplomb. Who
can contradict, who shall gainsay him 1 Worthy of note
indeed are the pontifical air and tone with which he dic-
tates his imperious orders, for he is clever enough to know
that in the eyes of the Turks a hesitating air brands you at
once as an ignorant poltroon. You must be grand,
omniscient in mien and port. With what majesty did he
not one day order the vines to be irrigated with sea water,
and this on hillsides situated some twenty metres above the

6a THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

level of the Sea of Marmora ! Then, again, his lofty
interdietment of the manufacture of sulphate of ammonia,
being hurtful, so he said, to agriculture ! What charming
impromptu names he found for pestilent blights that touched
the lemon and fig-trees and ruined the silk-worm crop !
But let us have done with this mountebank ; at least such
poor Europeans as were languishing in the marsh lands
had to thank him for providing them with a few moments
of hilarity. What serious result can ever be looked for
from such an administration cPopcra houffe in which the
leading part is taken by a clown who " goes in for " agricul-
ture much as the famous General Boum " went in for "
strategy, and who gives the key-note to his band of
insignificant satellites? They sing and act their parts with
indifference ; all they think about is their salary, which is
always overdue.

Latterly many young Turkish students have been sent to
France, where they have benefited by the sound and
thorough education which the best schools there could give
them. But, when back again in Turkey, they at once dis-
covered that education is capital that cannot be utilised,
and that their first and foremost duty is to be agreeable
to their superiors. Knowledge is nothing ; flattery is
all. Indeed, their schemes for improvement only dis-
turb the sweet serenity of the bureaux, and detract
from the lustre of the splendid planet round which they
revolve, the omnipotent, omniscient Director. So, if they
be men of ideas, they are promptly sent off into the heart
of the provinces ; but in a haphazard way, with no definite
instructions to carry out, and above all, with no recognised
authority whatever. Here it is thought that laziness may

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 63

destroy their zeal, and that the conviction of their utter
uselessness may effectually serve to calm their ardour. In
a few years they become as sterile, as supine, as the rest,
sagely siding with the non-progress party, and comfortably
abandoning all idea of advancement or of impi-ovement.
Then, when emasculate and flaccid they fall to the dead
level, the Department tolerates and even rewards them as
good and faithful servants who straightway enter into the
joy of their lord.

One of the greatest misfortunes of Turkey is that no
count is taken of a man's intellectual or moral worth.
Place, promotion ; all that goes by kissing. Here, if any-
where, one may confirm the melancholy truth of the
proverb : " A prophet is not without honour save in bis
own country." As a general rule, the obscurest, shallowest
charlatan is sure to get the better of the man who is honest,
conscientious and thorough. Thus many young Turks may
be seen wandering about Stamboul ex-pupils of the Ecole
Centrale de Paris, of the Ecole cles Mines, or other leading
French Colleges ; and for years and years they stroll about
in search of a place, going from Department to Department,
from Ministry to Ministry, wasting their precious years of
youth, and losing gradually but surely all their zeal and
energy of purpose. They spend whole afternoons in the
bureaux, sitting hands folded and cross-legged on shabby
divans, fingering their eternal bead necklaces, in an attitude
half-solicitous, half-resigned. This exliausting employment
soon saps their eneigy and weakens their character. Yery
soon they go with the curi-ent. When disillusionised, they
at once perceive that their chiefs have only one policy, and
that is, to thwart all attempts at progress, and ferociously

6^ THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

to maintain the statu quo. These mandarins are all for
remaining stationary, immovable ; a step forward might
shake their prestige, might damage their reputation ; and so
they are ever on the watch for malleable, supple characters,
for washed-out intellects, for limp, gelatinous temperaments.
In order to get on, to come to the front, the best thing
is to forget all that you have learnt, and unhesitatingly to
accept worn-out, superannuated ideas. Highly -trained
hypocrites will even go so far as to say that they prefer
these ideas, and will slily declare, that to be a good
functionary, one can never really be ignorant enough.

A sly Turk who has managed to hide under his fez the
wit of a Parisian, said once in our hearing to one of his
compatriots who had just returned from the Western
Babylon : — " Listen to me, my good friend. Buy a big
fez — the biggest you can find. Shove it right down over
your head till it touches your eye-brows. Order a coat cut
Turkish fashion and a pair of double-soled boots. Don't
wear those fly-away cravats; they are far too modem. Say
little, and above all never utter the word ' Paris.' Pretend
to have wholly forgotten that wicked city. If folk ask
you about it, shoot out the lip like a man disillusioned.
If with all that you can manage to grow a stomach, verily
you are a saved man ! "

This explains to us why the authorities do nothing for
agriculture, and why the latter is in such a wretched state ;
and so we may understand how it is that this country,
the richest and most fertile in the world, presents such a
picture of barrenness and neglect. From this land it was
that Europe got corn, the peach, the cherry, the apricot,
the plum, besides plants, shrubs and trees in plenty. It was

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 65

the land of Canaan, the earthly Paradise, the granaiy of the
world ; and now it barely can give food to its sparse popu-
lation.* Throughout this fertile land many persons perish
of hunger ; in the interior, whole towns tumble down to
ruin ; the highroads have become dangerous ravines, all
overgrown with thorns and briars ; the stone bridges, built
by Sultans in bygone days, have fallen in and are now patched
up into shaky fords with rotten timber and logs of pine.
So rickety are these that the traveller dare not risk
crossing them on horseback. He sends his horse on by a
servant, and walks over on foot, the safest way being to
find a ford hard by, which peasants have clumsily con-
structed for their own use. In some of the plains one
notes a minaret in ruins, the last vestige, this, of a
vanished village, and a sign that life in the land is slowly
becoming extinct.

What we have just said regarding the Department of
Agriculture is equally applicable to the Administration of
Forests. No country is richer in timber than Turkey. It
furnishes several rare species. France for instance has
only twelve sorts of oak ; Asia Minor yields fifty-two kinds,
twenty -six of which are not to be found elsewhere. The trees
by their exuberance and height show how excellent are the
climate and the soil in which they thrive. And yet the
work of wanton devastation surpasses all belief. Whole
forests have been hacked down and never a thought given
to their renewal ; they are sold for a miserable pittance to
concessionists who know the resistless almighty power of
baksheesh ; and so, as a result, we have a wild massacre of
trees and limitless pillage.

* Six inhabitants to every square kilom2tre.

66 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Just to get a little ready money the Government has
bartered, squandered away incalculable treasure. There
you have the Apres nous le deluge theory pushed to its
utmost limits.

The forests are for the most part devastated by their
inhabitants. They chop the trunks of the great trees in
half, and scoop out these halves, making basins for the rain
which slowly rots the heart of the wood. This is said to
make the work of fire- wood-chopping easier. In other
districts the trees are burnt down, as their ashes are often
needed for cooking purposes. Que voulez-vous ? There is
no regular system of exploitation,' no markets for the sale of
timber, no personnel nor any competent chief to direct and
superintend the forestry work. What is to be done with
riches that can profit them nothing? The peasant's
vandalism may just as well continue unchecked. For that
matter, the habit of burning down forests is common
among all Oriental people. Shepherds and peasants start
a forest fire sometimes wantonly, but more often to effect
a clearing and get at virgin soil which for a few years will
yield splendid crops. And then, if there be a falling off,
more trees are burnt, and another portion of the forest is
destroyed. All this effectually serves to dry up the soil
and the streams that nourish it ; so that by degrees the
miserable peasant finds himself a victim to his own wanton
stupidity.

About twenty years ago, a French mission came to Turkey
to devise Vvays and means for saving the wrecked forests
and for reconstructing them. It laid down elaborate plans
for proper exploitation and for re-grafting. What has
become of these fine and laboriously-conceived theories?

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 67

They are still spoken of with admiration, but the system of
intermittent plunder still holds good ; and Turkey ere long
will not have timber sufficient to repair the vessels of her
fleet. But -svliy should any anxiety be felt about a future
in which no one any longer believes 1

For agriculture as for forestry, the insufficiency of means
of transport is a most terrible obstacle. Besides the main
roads that are often in a deplorable state, there are only
bad routes along which no carriage can pass. Parts of the
so-called catriage-roads are so bad that vehicles drive in
preference o\er the open country that stretches on either
side of the chaussee. By virtue of this simple system, there
are three or four contiguous and parallel roads; and, as
each wears out, another is made by encroaching upon the
fallow land lying beside it which is rarely or ever cultivated.
Transport service can only be effected by horses, camels or
mules. In Constantinople you will see long files of scraggy
horses all lashed together and dragging seven or eight
blocks of unhewn stone clumsily tied on with cord to their
saddle-girths, or a dozen planks placed cross-wise on the
brutes' backs, one end aloft and the other trailing in the mud.
So in the same way, sand, chalk, bricks, tiles and firewood
are carried from place to place. The cost of transport
when performed in this petty fashion of course makes the
price of provisions very much higher, and hinders the
peasant from successfully resisting foreign competition.
Thei-e is no other resource for the cultivator but to
bury his surplus crop underground, as he cannot find a
market for it.

Under such conditions it becomes not only impossible
for the inhabitants of districts situate far inland to export

68 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

their grain, but even different centres can have no com-
munication the one with the other. A district where the
crops have given a rich surplus cannot send off its wealth to
a district where famine is decimating the population.
While such a state of things exists, it is vain to talk of the
advance of Ottoman Agriculture ; nay, while it lasts, the
country must ever remain menaced by the perils and the
horrors of famine.

True, for some years past, there has been a talk of rail-
ways, but how many of the fine plans put forward have met
with success? In Asia Minor, there are only the lines from
Smyrna to Alacher and to Nazli, with a short line from
Adana to the interior. - Nothing has yet been done in
this direction, though groups of concessionists, English,
French, and German, swarm. They are at great pains
to study the route, pi'epare their plans, and to draw up
their schemes clearly and succinctly, and, above all, gain
the goodwill of the pashas. But nothing can ever conquer
the callousness of the Turk, nor his hostility to the Euro-
pean. Every evening new promises are given, that with
the morrow are put off; it is one series of perpetual post-
ponements, of shifts, of sham objections and a whole string
of ludicrous formalities that are made endless on purpose.
For the Turks, though they will not roundly refuse to hear
of progress, yet do their best to discourage every attempt at
securing it.

One of the most singular examples of this hostility may
be furnished by the story of the Moudania Broussa railway,
quite close to Constantinople. Broussa, once the ancient (and
some day perhaps the future) capital of the Ottoman empire,
lias an important trade in silk and cotton embroideries. Its

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 6q

commerce in wine, fruit and vegetables is also considerable,
while its thermal springs are widely renowned. The Govern-
ment accordingly decided to construct a railway between
this beautiful city and the Moudania, the port whence
steamers start for Constantinople. This line, forty-two
kilometres in length, may be found marked on any map by
the unwitting tourist ; yet let him not be deceived ; the
I'ailway is there, but it does not work. Since 1875 the line
is complete, the platform, station, sheds are all erected and
in readiness, even the locomotives ; and yet all is at a stand-
still. It is the railway belonging to the Sleeping Beauty
in the VV^ood. The sheds are empty and mossgrown, the
locomotives slumber in a corner, the rails are all rusty, and
winter rains have done much to destroy the railroad that
in some way resembles the skeleton of a serpent. The
peasants living near carry off anything they may fancy,
while the refreshment I'oom at the station is given up to
Angora goats. Who will play Prince Charming to this
drowsy railway and rouse it from its lethargy 1 Many
have tried to do so, but none could resist that terrible
enchanter, or rather disenchanter, the Ottoman Govern-
ment.

Side by side with the bad roads and difficulties of com-
munication we have brigandage, which thrives and flourishes.
Talk to a Turkish official about the dangerous state of the
provincial districts, and he will assure you that no country
enjoys greater tranquillity and order than his own. But
travel through these districts and question the inhabitants ;
read a few of the bald reports in local and official journals,
and then judge for yourself as to the truth of such a
pleasant assertion. Everywhere brigandage thrives and

70 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

prospers. In one place Bulgarians are to the fore, in
another Albanians ; here, Greeks ; there, Kurds, Turcomans,
Zeibeks. At any moment these villains make a raid on
villages, kill or garotte the inliabitants, plunder the crops,
carry off the cattle, sack houses, and rape pretty girls or
take their rich fathers prisoner. For these latter the
brigands ask a heavy ransom, the amount of which they
obligingly fix themselves ; and if, at a given hour, the
money be not paid over to them at the place indicated, an
ear or the nose of the victim is hacked off prior to beheadal.
Another pastime much in vogue is to bum prisoners in a tar-
barrel. A notorious bandit, when captured lately, made it his
boast to have roasted in such a fashion no fewer than eleven
people. Not even Turkish functionaries are spared. A
governor-general was stabbed in the streets of his capital,
another was butchered with all his family, while a bishop
was seized on his own premises and carried off to the hills.
These are not exceptional cases, they are well-nigh daily
ones ; of so common occurrence as to be hardly noticed.
They do not happen only in remote districts and mountainous
regions, but also in the suburbs of great cities. Outside the
gates of Smyrna you are no safer than outside those of
Salonica. The recent capture of four young Englishmen at
Boumabat near Smyrna, and the subsequent death of Mr
Oscar Whittall, one of the prisoners are still fresh in every-
body's memory ; at Kartal, at Kandilli, on the Bosphorus,
bi-igands swarm. They killed two gardeners at the latter
place last autumn, roasting one wretched man alive by
soaking him in petroleum. Even at Pera, it is unsafe to
venture down the slope into the foul-smelling Kassim
Pcvsha quarter, for stabbing and robbery are over common

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 7 1

there. At night in the side-streets Europeans have often
lost their money and their lives.

Tragic stories of this sort are a byword in the villages of
the interior. Here, a traveller's head was chopped off;
there, a consul was massacred, and his wife and servant
violated. At another place a farm was burned down and
its inmates put to horrible tortures in order to discover
where their money and valuables were hidden. The
villagers dare not resist ; they either flee or yield to their
ferocious assailants. They even fear to ask the police or
gendarmery to help, dreading a more awful vengeance.
They prefer to be on the strong side, and keep in with the
brigands. No such thing as public safety exists ; and the
peasant has only one safeguard, viz., to be as poor as
possible. With nothing to lose, he has nothing to fear.

Brigandage in Turkey is far from being regarded as a
shameful trade. To have a " brother in the mountains " is
a common vaunt ; and you will hear a man frankly confess
that he is a brigand who has retired from business. Several,
as age comes upon them, turn into respectable sheep-
dealers. One became a monk at Mount Athos ; and another
of my acquaintance ironically entered the gendarmery.

Thus, everything is against the peasant : the authorities,
who do nothing but harass him ; the usurer, who sucks him
dry ; the brigand, who robs him of all he possesses. Can
it be wondered, then, that under such conditions, he is such
a poor farmer, so ignorant, so stupid, so maladroit *? It
cannot be afl&rmed that Ottoman agriculture is in its
infancy ; that were to say too little. It is better to state
at once that it has remained just as Adam left it on the
day after his fall. Assuredly at the time of the Greeks

72 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

and Romans it was more advanced ; it has since gone
backwards. If the soil in Turkey still produces something,
that is because it yet retains somewhat of its fornier
extraordinary fecundity. There is no real attempt at
tillage. The ground is lightly raked up and a few handfuls
of seed scattered over it that are never properly covered
up. There is no system of irrigation, no use of manure.
So much for Ottoman agriculture. The fruit trees grow at
hap hazard, as they best may ; they are never lopped or
pruned. So much, again, for Ottoman arboriculture. Only
in the marshy districts does produce receive greater care,
so as to prove remunerative.

Yet by degrees this fertility diminishes and the cultivator,
apathetic though he be, begins to grow uneasy. He has
heard that his ancestors in their day got back from the
ground eighteen or twenty per cent, of seed to one per cent,
given; now, it hardly yields six or seven. So he looks
about for a remedy of this evil and goes to the Department
of Agriculture for advice. And the Department of Agri-
culture promises salvation and a remedy by giving him
technical instruction. Let us see a little how this system
of technical instruction has been organised.

The idea of founding a Technical School of Agriculture
to train up Turks to be thrifty, competent farmers, is in
itself an admirable one, deserving of all praise. The way
in which this idea has been realised, is, however, the most
ridiculous imaginable. In a land so eminently favoured by
Nature, it would have been easy to find a piece of ex-
cellently fertile soil, well-watered and near some highroad
or railway. Several such spots were suggested. But
intrigue and baksheesh sufficed to let the authorities pitcli

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 73

upon a dry, sterile plateau called Hal Kal4 devoid of
■water and without verdure of any kind ; a solitary spot in
the mountains, far removed from any main route or town
or railway. To convert this arid place into anything like
a centre of fertility, large sums of money had to be spent.
To maintain on these desolate heights some hundred pupils
and with a numerous staff of professors and workmen, the
cost, was of course, considerable, as pro\'isions, clothing and
every necessary had to be transferred thither as to a desert
island. Even to buy a pair of boots one had to waste six
hours in going and returning.

That is not all, however. On this plateau, under the
guise of farmhouses, a veritable fortress was speedily built,
having huge walls and an infinity of windows and postern
gates. On the esplanade in front of it, ten thousand men
could easily have manoeuvred. There was no thought
about agriculture, about the needs and requirements of a
college. It was just one orgie of bricks and mortar; a
lavish heaping of stone and tile, the enterprising workmen
and architects having a great joy therewith. Assuredly, if
they had not been stopped, they would have piled up the
masonry until it touched the sky. This architectural
freak, however, did not last for more than one winter ; in
1886, a goodly portion of the building fell in. Two hundred
and fifty thousand francs had been spent already ; and
another hundred and fifty thousand were needed to com-
plete the masterpiece.

Luckily, however, at this juncture public attention was
called to the scandal. A committee was appointed which
soon decided that the buildings had been so badly con-
structed as in no w-ay to serve their purpose. When the

74 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Director of the Agriculture Department asked for funds to
complete his noble work, the Council of Ministers amiably
invited him to pull'down half the "fortress" and re-build it
according to the system adopted by local engineers. So it
is evident that all poor rustics in Asia Minor will have yet
long to wait before they derive any benefit from the
Department of Agriculture.

We have sought to present the Turkish agriculturist as
a good fellow, honest, sincere, but like one of his own
sheep, fleeced and maltreated by everybody. How is it
that such difierence should exist between Tweedledum and
Tweedledee, between the rustic Turk, who is the oppressed,
and the Ottoman "functionary," who is the oppressor?

Both are the same race ; they speak the same language ;
they have the same religion. And yet it is impossible to
imagine two more utterly different beings. It is because
the official world is a poisonous, pernicious world, infect-
ing all who move in it ; honesty gives place there to
base and impudent venality ; good faith, candour are
regarded as proofs of imbecility. Lying is "the only
wear," untruth the only coin which passes current; and
respect is transformed into abject servility.

Add to this harmonious ensemble a ferocious thirst for
material enjoyment a limitless lust for lucre ; the venom
of rivalry, green-eyed jealousy and ambition without scruple
or check; and there you have the melancholy picture of the
moral condition of the governing class, of the officers of the
State. Rarely in such a sea of corruption does one find
vestiges of the race's original qualities, such as benevolence,
simplicity, courtesy and gentle treatment of the weak or
the wronged.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 75

The evil comes from above. A Turkish proverb says,
Baliik hashdan cocar, " A tish stinks in the head first."
This hints at the corruption of those in power. And in
truth it is from the sovereigns and their surroundings that
the poison has descended to the people.

To grow convinced of this, one should read the history of
Turkey, a history little known in Europe, but which is
just one terrible tissue of abominable butchery and lust.
As one turns the pages of it, they seem to stain the fingers
with blood. Beneath the glory of conquerors and the
splendour of victorious armies, we find a series of foul
atrocities without parallel in the annals of any nation ;
giving records of human beings tortured with red-hot pincers,
roasted on spits, cut into slices, grilled alive. Thus it
is but with horror that we can regard the palace of the Old
Seraglio, that at once provokes admiration and repugnance.
The blood of the massacred seems to stream down its
grey marble walls, wliile heads of victims gibber at us
from the spikes that top them. See, from yonder postern
gate, corpses sewn up in sacks were flung out into the
P.osphorus. Behind those gratings, strangling and poisoning
were done. That is the cage in which a Sultan imprisoned
his brothers ; here stands the porphyry column on which
grand viziers were beheaded ; and there the door whence
women of the harem were thrown into the sea. This
palace, all of it, was once the theatre of the most revolting
orgies ; blood-thirsty monsters here held revel and gave
rein to their ferocity and their lust.

Can one believe that the character and dignity of the
most energetic nation on earth could ever have resisted
such fearful contagion 1 Go to Yedi-Coul^ to the Castle

76 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

of the Seven Towers. There you will be face to face with
horrors. There victims were hung, drawn, quartered,
chopped to pieces. There you will see the so-called Well
of Blood ; and you can read on the walls, the inscrip-
tions of the doomed. Only lately, in a walled up room
were found piles of human bones and skulls. Why was all
this ? Because, in this fair land, under a sky so clement,
all belonged to one man, to one tyrant, who knew no law
other than that of his vengeance and his lust.

But there have been autocrats in Europe, some one will
urge. In Turkey, autocracy is quite another thing. The
nation does not exist. There is only one man, sovereign
and absolute master of all things and all people. He is
proprietor of all lands, liouses and estates, and of all the
wealth of all his subjects. He can dispose of their money
as of their life ; can take from them wife and children.
The army is his also. In a phrase, there is no such thing
as fatherland for the Osmanli ; he and his belong to tlie
Padishah !

It is true that this state of things has to-day undergone
modification, but the principle yet exists; and it is just
this principle which in bygone days began to act as gangrene
for Turkey. Then, what awful records have we of the
Sultans' reigns ; of Selim who massacred 40,000 persons
suspected of heresy, and was for exterminating all the
Christians of the Empire; of Amurad III, that drunken
debauchee who murdered his five brothers ; of Mahommed
III who killed nineteen of his brothers, and let his own son
be butchered ; of Murad IV who caused the massacre of
100,000 people ; of Mahommed IV, who gave full power to
hh Grand Vizier to work what monstrous infamy he listed,

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 77

in common with the Janissaries, that evil band who seized
upon comely Christian youths in the streets, and forced
them to submit to their unnatural lust ; who strangled
their rulers, and butchered women and children at will. In
our own century, even, we have the massacre of the Greeks
at Constantinople ; and that of the Chiotes, when 25,000
persons were strangled and 45,000 others led off into slavery ;
the persecution of Christians in the East ; the Bulgarian
atrocities; and the throttling of 15,000 Maronites, really
provoked by the Turkish Government, but hypocritically
laid to the scoi'e of the Druses. Then we come to that
ferocious monster Abd-ul Aziz (murdered by his Ministers
in the Dolma Baghtche Palace, by opening his veins), and
finally to the luckless Moorad, buried alive in his palace at
Tcheraghan, accused of dipsomania by some, and canonised
as a martyr by others.

There you have history, official liistory ; but the study of
it should lead one to go further and make one penetrate
into the inner life of all these sovereigns, viziers and pashas.
Then one would speedily conclude that no more frightful
history than that of Turkey exists. After reading such
terrible pages it is like waking from a niglitmare to see all
these grave Turks in long coat and fez calmly walking
along the bridge at Karakeuy. But have a care ! they are
civilized only on the surface ; at the first opportunity the
brute reasserts itself.

A people used to live under such a system of ferocious
oppression was fatally doomed to decay. No sooner did the
princes give an example of blind and brutal egoism than
straightway all tlie functionaries, great and small, followed
in their wake and played tlieir part of petty despots to the

78 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

best advantage. All glory, happiness and interest being
centred in the sovereign, the nation slowly died out, un-
thought-of, uncared-for.

Terrified at such alarming progress towards dissolution
the last Sultans sought to effect certain reforms. Abdul
Medjid made a step in the right direction, but how many of
his projected reforms were ever executed 1 The habits and
customs of the country were opposed to such schemes; thus
the loyal endeavours of this caliph were checked and
paralysed.

At the present day Turkey is governed by a Sultan who
is well-intentioned, moderate, benevolent and animated by
an evident desire to promote the prosperity of his people.
He makes considerable sacrifices in favour of public
instruction, corrects administrative abuses and devotes all
his efforts towards the creation and development of national
industry. Turks joyfully hail Abdul Hamid's peaceful
reign of reform, yet not one of them will move a single step
along the road which he points out. They wish the country
to progress, yes ; but nobody will do anything towards this
end. Each person doggedly persists in remaining where he
is, and asks that others be made to move on. So this reign,
like those before it, will repair nothing, for in Turkey
all is irreparable ; and the country can only be saved
by its complete and thorough reorganisation on new
ground, in a more bracing climate. " The Sick Man "
must be made to breathe the pure air of the great plains
of Asia, Stamboul's vitiated atmosphere is killing him.
By a strange and sad continuity of events, it is the
sovereign, the most enlightened of his race, who himself
is helping to work the ruin of his Empire and who is

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 79

fighting vainly against the fatal consequences of his pre-
decessors' sins.

That, then, is the actual situation in Turkey. At the
bottom of the ladder is the agricultural class, too poor and
too ignorant to try and save the nation by a miracle of
energy ; at the top of it, the official world, rotten with
egoism and every shameful vice ; and with no belief left in
the future of the race.

Corruption has come from the top ; regeneration can
never come from the bottom. To save this nation, a series
of catastrophes is needed, which shall upset the adminis-
trative aristocracy and of necessity bring the sovereign into
close contact with the people — we were going to say, with
the democracy, did such word not infer that the men com-
posing it had a certain cognisance of their rights and
moreover, a firm desire to guard them.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TURKISH OFFICIAL. HOW HE OFFICIATES. SALARIES

THAT ARE CHIMERICAL AND SALARIES THAT ARE FABULOUS.
THEORY AS TO THE UTILITY OP BAKSHEESH. — BUDGET-
WEEVILS.

We have now to touch the core of the evil, for we are
going to speak of the Turkish official. In Europe his
reputation counts as none of the best ; but in reality he is
worth even less than that reputation, poor though it be.

The candidate for a Government appointment is generally
ill-fitted for his post, ignorance being habitual to his nation.
When he has gone through a successful course of study at
the Galata Serai College or at the Ecole (T Administration,
this is doubtless in his favour, though the latter establish-
ment leaves much to be desired, and hardly passes the
level of primary schools in France. But more often than
not, such guarantees are never exacted. He gets his
appointment because he is the son, or the grandson of a
pasha ; because he has a relative at the Palace ; in a word,
because he is backed up by some "influential personage."
The art of self-recommendation by proxy, Vart du piston,

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 8l

as they say in France, has in Turkey reached quite pheno-
menal proportions ; but the curious part of it is that this
backing-up is all priced, all saleable.

We do not only allude to the little presents made to a
" high functionary " who has taken the successful candidate
under his august patronage. More than that, the whole
affair degenerates into a hard and fast bargain. As the
young aspirant is often devoid of all resources, he is obliged
to sign a contract by which he agrees to hand over to his
patron a part of his salary for a fixed period. This reminds
one of the percentage claimed by servants' or governesses'
registry-offices in France or in England. In Turkey, again,
it is the system adopted for the appointment and advance-
ment of a Government official. "When a post falls vacant,
tliere is lively competition and a perfect ferment of in-
trigue. Each candidate secures a "protector" who in-
terests himself in the success of his protege, and, for
monetary reasons, tries to make him distance rivals and
come out first on the list. What cunning, what wiles
and flattery, does not this magnate use, the anxious can-
didate meanwhile pestering him night and day, and feeding
the fire of his zeal !

Tlie nomination when proposed by the Minister competent
to do so, has to be ratified by His Highness the Grand
Vizier and then submitted to the Imperial Chancery for
the Sovereign's sanction. No sooner is the news of his
appointment officially announced, than the nominee is at
once besieged by the clerks and office employes of his
patron all eager for their share of baksheesh. By what
subtle intuition did these clever underlings divine that
some business was afoot between their master and the
F

82 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

candidate? It verily does honour to the wonderful scent
of the Oriental, that he can discover the odour of a
baksheesh like the odour of trufl3es, while yet huried in the
earth. Tho nominee, puffeH up with pride and joy, is
lavish in his "tips" right and left to voracious subalterns,
determining to make up for such generosity later, when he
in turn shall be able to bleed his colleagues.

He then proceeds to learn the routine of his work, which
is not very complicated. It mainly consists in studying
official habits, and how speedily to assume the character of
the consummate functionary. The first things to be ac-
quired are calm, gentleness, imperturbable politeness and
profound obsequiousness towards superiors. He must learn
how to flatter his chiefs by gradual doses given at judicious
intervals — not less, say, than three times a week. He must
above all avoid doing, or proposing to do, anything that
might be disagreeable to them, for, in Turkey, officials hate
to be troubled by work, by objections or by remarks of any
kind. The neophyte should never forget this; moreover, it
is easy for him to maintain an attitude of prudent reserve,
he being never asked to take the initiative nor to act upon
his own responsibility.

For all administrative operations there is a sort of con-
secrated formula, never varying, which has to be adapted
to the business in hand, or, rather, the business has to be
adapted to the formula; as the essence of the matter is
nothing as compared with the form. Every document not
drawn up in accordance with this superannuated formula
is considered as null and void. It must be cast in the
ancient mould or it is worthless.

To shape a budding functionary it is usually the cnstom

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 83

to put him for three or four years in an office where he has
constant opportunity of studying the said formulae and
can thus cram them into his head. Having thoroughly
nijistered them, he straightway is qualified to edit and
draw up official documents, for he has learnt the knack of
writing with the requisite pomp and inflation of style.
Turkish official language, be it noted, is distinguished by
phrases almost immeasurable in length ; the great art in
building up these is to interweave a batch of incidental
propositions that are casually grafted on to gerundives and
participles with one single verb tagged on at the end.
Phrase-architecture of this sort is of course a hindrance to
clarity of thought and of comprehension ; and so it comes
that such documents have to be commented upon and
interpreted like any obscure passage in Holy Writ. At
times you may see three or four Government underlings in
close confab over some Note that has come from the Sub-
lime Porte (from the Grand Vizierate, probably), and all
are cracking their heads to try and discover what instruc-
tions are wrapped up in these sinuous, winding, slippery
phrases. But in this roundabout style lies the very genius
of the Turkish language; so why should we quarrel with iti
His head once stuffed with these indigestible formulae, the
poor functionary is considered extremely capable : higher
than this, he certainly never intends to aim. To read a
technical work treating questions which ought to interest
him professionally, never enters his head ; nor dare he
attempt to introduce improvements in his branch of the
service. Still less will he venture to put any personal
touches to a document or correct in it some erroneous
notion. And so, all his life long he remains incompetent

^4 THE EVIL OF THE EAST,

to judge of questions that are daily submitted to him. He
does not administrate ; he is an oflBcial ; and he ofl&ciates.
That is all.

The wonderful sloth of Turkish bureaucracy is proverbial.
I would only remind those luckless Europeans of it who
have ever essayed to stir up these mastodons. The Turk
will make the same person wait upon him ten or a dozen
times to save him the bother of writing a letter. He will
invent the most astounding excuses to avoid having to
scrawl three lines. To dip his reed-pen in the ink is for
him a painful effort ; to look for a sheet of paper is a veri-
table act of heroism ; to get up might in all likelihood make
him ill. He will gladly offer the visitor coffee and
cigarettes ; will listen to him with patience ; will promise
all ; and infallibly ask him to call in a few days. Business
is thus dragged on in Turkey over months and over years.
I myself went eighty-three times to the Ministerial Depart-
ment to obtain the solution of a little matter, which after
twenty months of waiting is not yet settled. I should like
such of my compatriots as rebel against the languor of
French administration, to be sent out for a while to Con-
stantinople. They would return to their homes humbled
and repentant, accusing themselves of black ingratitude.

If an Ottoman functionary be absent through death or
change of office, all that he has begun is broken off. The
papers left on his desk are religiously respected ; witli him
his office dies. Six months should generally be allowed for
a reply to be obtained in any business matter pending, ten
months being needed for a nomination, provided you go
every day to the bureau in question and bully the officials
there. For payments you must dawdle about a year ; there

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 85

are no limits to waiting for a concession ; it may last ten,
fifteen, twenty years. As a result of the functionary's
laziness, we have his unpunctuality ; and in this he is
singularly favoured by the system of timekeeping that
obtains in Turkey.

Twelve o'clock corresponds with sunset, so that every
day the hour alters, there being a delay for six months,
and an advance for six tjionths of the year. Hence the
necessity of tampering daily with one's watch, moving the
hands forwards or backwards ; and no chronometer, how-
ever solidly made, can ever resist such treatment, while
nobody can flatter himself tliat he has really got the exact
time.

The ]Mosque of Yeni Djami is supposed to give it, but as
every Turk cannot pass this charming edifice daily, it is
plain that complete anaichy reigns among Mussulman
watches. This irregularity in time brings with it irregularity
in habits. Two persons agiee to meet at a fixed hour, but
neither comes to the place of meeting until long after the
time appointed, each counting upon the other's delay.
Clerks go to their offices at a certain hour, and they leave
them at a certain hour also. It is the system of *' Pretty
nearly," or " Just about that."

Temperament and vanity make the Ottoman functionary
afraid to be too soon; -and thus there are these insufterable
delays which go far beyond the patience of Europeans, and
serve to exasperate the coolest of them. Want of precision
in habits and in ideas, that is one of the cardinal vices of
Ottoman administrators, if indeed it be not a dishonest
method of bringing business matters to grief, that do not
quite hit their taste.

86 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

In order to see a person for ten minutes you must lose a
whole day. There is no recognised hour for visits or for
meals. You eat when there is food going, when you feel
hungry, when it graciously pleases your cook to serve up
something. If asked to dine with a Turk, go to him in the
morning, but do not expect to sit down to table till evening
At any rate, look upon your whole day as wasted ; and as
you are expected to stay the night with your host, this helps
you to get through the best part of another day as well.

When the young functionary is well saturated with the
spirit of sloth and of routine, he has only to think of two
things, viz. — to draw his salary, and by hook or crook to
secure promotion. Verily, the former operation is a pain-
ful one ; professional beggary even has less bitterness about
it. Let a Turkish official present himself at the Pay
Department. The cashier replies in brutal fashion : —

" There's no money ! "

" When will there be any 1 "

" How do I know ? "

After such an encouraging announcement the Turk has
nothing for it but to wait, and finally fall into the clutches
of the Jews. Ari-ears of salary often date back seven,
eight, twelve months, sometimes more. To a compatriot
of ours twenty-two months' salary was overdue. But
in this respect, be it averred, Turks are worse oflf than
foreigners.

What is to be done? The poor Osmanli, who almost
always has a family and several children, tries to make
capital out of his official position. If charged to conclude
a bargain, he comes to a private understanding with the
contractor by which the State shall be swindled, fleeced.

THE EVIL OF THE EA.ST. 87

If sent on a mission of inspection, he allows himself to be
bribed, and glosses over ill deeds he has been charged to
denounce and punisli. To the items of his travelling
expenses he sticks on a heavy percentage which more
than reimburses him for his actual outlay. In a word he
cheats the State in every possible way. Then, before
submitting a business proposal to the proper quarter, he
exacts a fee ; and if this be not high enough he can make
the whole thing collapse, taking a bribe meanwhile from
the other side, from the parties competing with those who
originally solicited his intervention. The affair may event-
ually come to grief ; but he, anyway, has got his money
twice over. So he sells his credit and influence by retail ;
it is the only tangible means of revenue which his position
affords him.

The evil would not be as great as it is if the official had
loyalty or patriotism sufficient to protect before all things
the interests of his country and not to compromise its
future. Were this but so, one could really not accuse him
of a great crime if he took a baksheesh here and there for
private business affairs which he helped to make successful.
For the State does not pay him ; and, poor fellow, he has to
live. But unfortunately the thirst for gain is so great that
more often than not the country's interests are unscrupu-
lously sacrificed, and its future compromised in irremediable
fashion. What disgraceful monopolies, what fatal contracts,
what ruinous concessions have thus been granted I If
Turkey to-day is prevented from rising, it is because her
best resources have been taken from her by degrees. Piece
by piece the country's prosperity has been delivered over
to rapacious European capitalists ; and to-day the Govern-

88 THE EVIL OF THE EA.ST.

ment finds itself inextricably entangled in contracts which
make its ruin sure.

One of the most famous examples of these thievish con-
tracts was the construction of the railway line from Con-
stantinople to Adrianople. In this business a certain baron
of the financial world and other enterprising gentlemen
managed to rouler the Ottoman Government with truly
astonishing coolness. As the State granted a very high
subvention for every kilometre constructed, the con-
cessionists conceived the ingenious idea of multiplying the
number of kilometres, increasing the entire length of the
route by constant curves and windings. Study the Adria-
nople railway ; it is the very apotheosis of the curve. The
line lovingly meanders round the borders of lakes and
streamlets and over the undulating valleys ; it makes
flourishes great and small, seeming to catch at every possible
pretext for dawdling on the way. It reminds one of those
rivers of which our good friend Fenelon speaks in Tei^maque :
"By long detours, they seem to retrace their steps as if they
would fain return to their source, being unable to quit such
an enchanting land." So, too, the Adrianople line seems
always as if it were fain to return to Constantinople. As
poetry, even though in prose, this all is charming enough ;
but it becomes far less so when an industrial and economic
question is at stake, and when one reflects that this
lengthening of the line is just nothing more or less than a
base trick to cheat the Ottoman Government and extract
from it a heavier subvention. For the profit of a few
speculators, the interests of the whole country have been
sacrificed and its future seriously handicapped. Thanks
to all these curves, the speed at which trains travel does

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 89

not exceed the honest jogtrot of a tramway, going at the
rate of twenty kilometres an hour — sometimes less. The
very way in which the line is laid down would not permit
of rapid locomotion, and express trains can consequently
never run. To-day this question becomes graver as the
branch-line now joins the main one to Sofia, Belgrade,
Pesth, Vienna and Paris. It is the direct route between
England, France, Constantinople and Western Asia — the
one wliich the Orient express is to take. The branch line
from Adrianople to the Turkish capital will thus inevitably
have to be reconstructed in parts, mended in others, and
generally straightened out.

Moreover, on this astounding railway, all the stations
(such as those of Adrianople, Ouzoun-Keupni and others)
are situate at an hour or an hour-and-a half's distance from
the respective towns. At Adrianople, indeed, a new
railway or tramway ought to be constructed, connecting
the city with the railway station. Such mysterious sur-
prises make one think that one has been transported to a
land of opcra-houffe ; and instinctively one listens to catch
the distant strains of Offenbach. For, after all, these plans
and specifications were all submitted to the Imperial
Ottoman Government, whose commissionere superintended
the construction of the line and wlio, surely, had no need
of a skilful engineer to point out to them that the whole
afiliir Wiis one colossal lioax that has now cost the State
some tens of millions of fi-ancs. But wherefore wonder!
In the East there is an all-powerful magician, the Divine
Baksheesh, who can darken the sight and dull the intelli-
gence of even the sharpest.

One might multiply examples of this kind, but in Europe

90 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

they are becoming well-known, and everyone is aware what
such sham contracts are worth, in which the successful
competitor is nominated beforehand, being naturally he
that has promised the biggest baksheesh to the authorities,
who (naturally also) will get the worst goods at his hands.
Just so is it with concessions for mines or for public
works; all is fictitious, laughable, false. The outside of
Western honesty is copied, but only with a view to hide up
the shameless bribery and corruption of Ottoman ofiicials.
The Turk thinks he has made a great step in imitating our
printed forms, in copying the headings of deeds and con-
tracts as they are framed in Europe, in aping all our
formulse. In fact, for him does not his administration
become reduced to just a set of formulte? Argal : if the
administration be bad, change the form of it, and all will
go well. It is the spirit which kills ; it is the letter that
makes alive. Nobody, however, is so silly as to believe
that these surface-changes can do aught to better the
mind or the morals or the temperament of Ottoman
officials. It is the old story of the Turk who thinks he
has turned into an apostle of progress, because he puts on a
London-made coat or gets his stick-up collars straight
from Paris.

Besides his perpetual itch to make money, the Turkish
functionary hungers for another thing, for promotion, for
place, for a grade. It must first be noted that as in the
army so in the civil department, the same hierarchy
obtains. These dignities, although independent of the
functionary's office and bringing with them no emolument,
are yet greatly coveted, for they raise the official socially and
mark him off as a member of the true Turkish aristocracy.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 9 1

The titles, or ruthes, are : Salice, Sanie, Miralai, Oula-Senf-
Sani, Oula-Senf-Evvel, Bala and Vezir. They correspond
to the military grades of promotion from major to marshal.
Upon these seven titles all the ambition of the Ottoman
bureaucrat is centred. To decorations he gives little heed,
for the very servants and valets of the palace can sport
the Osmani^, while at Court receptions the breasts of
eunuchs blaze like the sun at noon. Sultan Aziz used even
to decorate his fighting cocks for their prowess. Ottomans
thus, do not care to take the same level as cocks — or as
capons ; and they smile inwardly at the eagerness of
Europeans to secure a Second Class or Fourth Class of the
Medjidieh. But again, as regards promotion the case is
different ; to get one of the seven grades in question, a
Turk will use all his cunning. He becomes on a sudden
active, zealous, even laborious. Thirst for work is the first
and most certain symptom of this disease. With feverish
tenacity, he exaggerates his own merits and depreciates the
worth of others. Sometimes he even goes to the length of
writing lampoons ; and, not content with being the servile
toady of his superiors, he becomes the rabid reviler of his
best friends.

In the Ottoman official world, esprit de corps is a thing
unknown. There is no such thing as brotherhood, no such
thing as solidarity. Every one for himself ; and every
man's hand is against his neighbour. Do your colleague a
bad turn ; for, depend upon it, when he gets a chance, he
will be equally obliging.

See those two young fellows who go by, chatting cordially
and calling each other "brother." Down the streets they
walk with their little fingers linked, like a pair of rural

92 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

lovers ; such simple friendship reminds you of Orestes and
of Pylades. Another disillusion ! there is not a tithe of
truth or of candour between them ; falsehood is all.
Orestes will go to his chief and tell him any secrets that
he may have been able to worm out of his comrade, and,
while repeating these, will put in black touches of his own.
Pylades runs off to his patron to denounce his friend as a
dangerous malcontent full of bitter words for the Govern-
ment and of disrespect for his sovereign. Strangest thing
of all ; each will know that night the ill which the other
has said about him. But never think that the disclosure
will lead to a quarrel or an estrangement. To-morrow,
they will link their little fingers just as affectionately as
before, calling each other by the same tender names.
One thing there is of which the Tui'kish official world
knows absolutely nothing ; and that is, dignity of character.
Each man despises his colleague too much to be vexed at
his base calumnies. Moreover, he despises himself ; and
he knows that, if the chance came, he would prove just as
contemptible as another.

Yonder functionary, wearing, one hardly knows why, a
brilliant military uniform is the spy and private detective
of the Chief. He goes from Department to Department,
under pretence of chatting with this or that official. But
in reality his work is to scrutinise the visitors who come to
the different bui'eaux, to take note how long they stay, and
how they look on leaving. His cleverness consists in
piecing together such shreds of conversation as he may
chance to pick up, and to make therefrom such deductions
as shall serve him eventually. Then, back he goes to his
patron and serves liim up the plat du jour with an

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 93

appetising sauce of his own confection, sparing neither
friend nor relative, in his haste to be spicy, not even his
poor brother-in-law, to whom perhaps he owes all. Why
he wears a uniform is thus easily conceivable ; it is simply
a livery !

The real professional backbiter, again, plays the spy on
two enemies at once, tarring on the one against the other
and fanning the flame of their hate, so that, later, he may
secure the post of the one through the good graces of the
other.

It is impossible for a Frenchman or an Englishman who
has gone through the mill, and who knows by experience
all the painful intricacies of Ottoman official life, not to
come out from it all disgusted and uttei'ly sick at heart.
And therefore, one can easily conceive why foreigners will
never consent, not even for the most tempting offers, to
renew their contracts with the Government.

By cruel lessons the official, yet green and enquiring,
soon learns the truth of this double maxim in which all
administrative life in Constantinople is summed up : " Trust
no one or you will be betrayed ! " " Always tell lies,
otherwise nobody will believe you ! '' Lying is a malady of
so endemic a nature that possibly a straightforward person
might be the dupe of his own sincerity. One is obliged to
festoon the truth and garland it in so pretty and pleasing
a way as to hide it altogether. If you mean " a hundred,"
you must say " ten thousand ; " otherwise, your questioner,
used to translate " ten thousand " by " a hundred," will
think that you only mean "ten." Everything is in the
superlative degree ; instead of adding, multiply ; that is the
general rule and the whole syntax of this special language

94 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Turkey is the home of the inexact sciences. When an
Ottoman shows you a thing, reverse your opera-glass if you
would get an idea of its just size.

Moreover, lying is an accomplishment by no means to be
despised ; and, for telling him an untruth, no Chief would
ever bear his subordinate any ill-will, though he might if he
cliose to be frank and speak out. Consequently, the sub-
ordinates must cheit rather than be disagreeable. The main
point is to win his Chief's favour rather than his confidence.
Some underlings will do all sorts of little jobs for their
master, fetching and carrying, executing his commissions,
flattering his vanity and his greediness. The least of
these bureacrats has the title of Excellency so soon as he
obtains the rank of oula. Surely never was there such a
firmament of Excellencies ! Knowing employees make the
best and most efficacious use of this term as a salve and an
emollient. Others, by frequent visits to their superiors,
afford him solace in his official cares by telling him dis-
gusting stories, by singing romances or by twangling the
guitar. Some play the pander to his passion for Christian
flesh, and pilot him to places where, by day as by night,
one is ever sure of a friendly reception. Some even . . .

But, pleasing one of these influential personages will not
suffice, one must side with him against his enemies. It is
impossible to remain neutral or to maintain one's independ-
ence of character. As in old Rome, the subordinate must
espouse his patron's cause and hate those whom he hates.
Turkish society is thus broken up, divided into factions ;
but not as in France, where religion or politics are the
engines of division. In Turkey, men are separated by
personal jealousy, by pride, by spite.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 95

A singular hostility reigns between the Government
authorities properly so called and the personnel of the
Imperial Palace. The Palace counts as a privileged State
— a sort of Empyrean floating above the nation's head.
All those who draw breath in this Imperial ether, because
they live near the sovereign, are notable for their over-
weening impertinence, and look down in lordly 'fashion
upon other functionaries. The most influential of them all
is the Kisleri Agha, the head eunuch and chief of the
Imperial harem. He has the rank of Marshal of the
Palace, and his credit is unlimited. After the Sultan, this
gelding counts as the first person in the Empire ; he stands
above the law, and if so minded, may fearlessly box a
recalcitrant Minister's ears. He goes by the pretty name
of Europeanophagus or devourer of all that is European ;
and he poses as the rabid defender of Asiatic barbarism.
Following his example, various palace functionaries have
declared themselves independent and in no wise obliged to
obey the Government of the country ; they do all they can
to thwart it, and make a vaunt of holding it in derision.

Most of these budget-weevils live on idly in fat laziness ;
their offices which they never fill are sinecures. Some-
times they assume queer titles which recall those of the
Janissaries in bygone days — Head of the Scullions, Super-
intendent of the Sideboard, Head of the Forage and
Provender Department, Director of the Aviary, and the
like. Such are the posts they occupy, though these posts
are very far from occupying them. Big and little, potent or
puny, they are all filled with most insufferable arrogance,
though verily in point of insolence the smaller fry bear off the
palm. To get an idea of human impertiiience, listen to a

(,6 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Palace eunuch bullying one of his master's servants, and it
will make you sad to reflect how base are both beings ; the
one who has arrived at such a pitch of brutal insolence,
the other who has fallen so low as to be powerless to reply.

One must not think that this world up at the Palace is
a little world, consisting of a small group of limpet-like
individuals. It is a legion living within the sacred pre-
cincts, thriving, fattening there, and enriching itself at
Imperial expense and Imperial generosity. Each of these
" Directors " and " Chiefs " has a dozen or more of servants
under him, who in their turn have other domestics that
obey their orders. Three thousand is the number of those
persons who daily receive their mid-day pilqf; the cost of
nourishing them exceeds, it is said, 60,000 francs per diem.
At noon whole battalions of cooks file past carrying on
their head broad platters on which are little saucepans.
It is the courtiers' dinner going by ! The number of
chickens that are devoured would suffice to sati-sfy the
most ravenous of armies.

But corporal nourishment is not enough to content these
ogres ; each has always something to petition and to beg
for himself, for his brother, for his cousin, or for his cousin's
friend. And the sovereign, whose generosity knows no
limits, always gives : to this one, a house ; to that one, an
estate ; to a third, a snuff-box set in brilliants ; to a fourth,
some gift on the occasion of a marriage or the bii-th of a
child. Newly-appointed Ministers often receive a palace
or a villa as a present, not to speak of lesser gifts in the
shape of sabres with jewelled hilts, costly watches, etc.
These brief facts are enough to show that the Palace is a
gulf in which is swallowed up a greater part of the riches

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 97

of the country. Officially the Sultan is satisfied with a Civil
List which does not exceed twenty-five millions of francs ;
but to that must be added the revenues derived from the
immense Crown property ; lands which include over twelve
hundred farms, and the precise extent of which has never
been accurately stated. Their rental alone is valued at
twenty-two millions of francs. Besides, there are other
revenues of various kinds ; and the sovereign, by virtue f
the laws of Tanzimat or of Reform, always reserves the right
to appropriate such and such State resource if he need it ;
and moreover, he sets his Ministers a bad example by taking
baksheesh himself; sums which are \alued collectively at
sixteen millions of francs. Thus the Palace absorbs —
devours sixty millions of francs annually !

To sum up : the Sultan is obliged to board and lodge
part of the Mussulman population of Constantinople. Add
to this the fact that he is personally charitable ; that when
any public calamity visits the land, such as a famine or a
fire, he gives largely, royally ; that if a village or a quarter
be burnt down he rebuilds it partially, if not wholly, at his
own cost ; that he gives money to the army, to the fleet, to
the sick and infirm, to poor students, as well as supplying
funds for the construction of hospitals, mosques and schools.
All the Sultans have indeed had a mania for building. A
European is astounded at the sight of so many huge palaces,
of sober exterior, but most marvellously decorated within.
Deserted monuments, these ; forsaken, ill-kept and falling
to ruin ; created by the caprice of a moment, but a caprice
that lasted rarely as long, and never longer than the life of
him who had it. On either side the Bosphorus banks such
white gleaming kiosques are to be seen : an unromantic
G

98 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

lady once compared them, not unhappily, to wedding-
cakes. Go inland througli the provinces ; everywhere you
will see Imperial residences, but, like those on the
Bosphorus, all deserted, decayed. Nothing moi'e mournful
meets the eye than these splendid edifices slowly rotting on
lonely plains ; one is reminded of the precious vestiges of
civilisation on which explorers light in Assyria and Upper
Egypt. In every city of the Empire there is a Mosque set
apart for the Sultan, wliich he never inhabits. Truly
prodigal is the luxury which marks these palatial abodes ;
rare marbles, rich and costly woods, enamel in silver and
in gold, mirrors and lustres from Venice, mosaics from
Florence and Rome ; choice furniture, the best sajiiples of
buhl and marqueterie work, with deep-hued carpets, soft,
velvety as fur. These magnificent abodes are nominally
guarded by majordomos who live .there with their families
in comfortable drowsiness and ease. How many hundreds
of millions of francs have thus been squandered which
might have been usefully spent in making roads, in fertilis-
ing valleys, in cutting canals, in constructing ports !

Each denizen of this world at Yildiz has one pre-occupa-
tion, and that naturally is how best to maintain his place
by trying to give proofs of zeal and usefulness. Courtiers
high and low all try to get into their master's good books,
and win his confidence by perpetually hinting at the
insecurity of his position. They pretend to be mainly
anxious to defend their sovereign, 'but in reality they want
to defend their own place, and to stick fast to that. They
raise up between the Padishah and his people an insur-
mountable barrier ; and it is their policy to maintain this
isolation, traditional indeed to Eastern monarchs, for in

THE EVIL OF THE EAST, 99

olden times, ambassadors were only suffered to see the
Sultan through a gilded grating.

All these Court men devote what wits and what imagi-
nation they have to inventing new causes for fear, ever
preparing false rumours of plots, of assassinations, of
conspiracies. The greatest statesmen, the worthiest and
most honest servants of the Empire cannot come off" un-
scathed from such pestilent calumnies, that are always
muttered hypocritically with bated breath — negative
slanders such as : "That Pasha is getting far too powerful 1 "
•'This one talks overloud and Avears a dangerously determined
air ! " " That other is always in Pera, and associates too
frequently with Europeans; without sj)ecial authorisation,
he attends Ambassadors' balls ! " "Such an one gets journals
from Paris, the dreadful hot-bed of Socialism ! " and so on.
By continual scares of this kind, tlie path to progress is
barred and the sovereign in such an atmosphere of terror
and alarm is, as it were, morally paralysed, and hindered
from carrying out his good intentions.

For several years past the Sultan has not dared to leave
the enceinte of his palace at Yildiz. Not only does he never
visit any city of his Empire, but he fears to show himself
at Stamboul or on the Bosphorus. His officious counselloi'.s
paint these places for him as so many dreadful gins and
pitfalls, full of bombs and of dynamite. By a religious law
the Head of the State is obliged every Friday— the Moslem
Sabbath — to attend public prayer at one of the mosques ;
and this weekly ceremony of the Selamlik was once celo
brated at Stamboul with great pomp and splendour. Now,
the Sultan Abdul-Hamid goes occasionally to the Beshikta^h
mosque at the base of Yildiz Hill, but more frequently, in

I CO THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

fact, as a rule, to the Hamidid mosque, named after his
Imperial Majesty, a brand new editice of white marble
built by the sovereign for convenience' (some say for
safety's) sake, on the crest of the slope, just outside his
palace gates.

The brief route from the Palace to the mosque, is closely
guarded by troops ; and not one person in the curious
crowd of spectators can possibly approach within killing
length. Dignified, imposing as is the spectacle, it yet
forces upon one the conviction that the Padishah, the
Noble Commander of the Faithful is voluntarily as great a
prisoner at Constantinople as is His Holiness the Pope in
Rome.

Yildiz Palace in truth is almost a fortress in itself.
Poised on the high ground above Pera, at considerable
distance from Stamboul, its massive walls environ a regular
park into which no one may ever penetrate. Vast barracks
surround it, and at a moment's notice the Sultan could lind
himself hedged round by an army. Roads across the park
lead down to the Bosphorus, where, off Dolma Baghtche,
two Imperial yachts lie always at anchor ; one of them has
her steam up always, whether it be night or day.

Spies in shoals patrol the city, lurking in public places
and worming their way into families, whom by one lying
phrase they often manage to ruin. Some of these Palace
Diouchards are familiar figures ; and in the restaurant or
the Blerhalle on seeing them, people point the finger and
drop their voice simultaneously. But most of them are
disguised so that, meeting them, you know them not, nor
whether, evilly, they may wrench your lightest and most
harmless word from its meaning, and give to it a suspicious

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. lOI

sense ! So it comes that in public, men t-alk always of
trivial mattei-s, and conversation becomes dry, lifeless,
without any touch of individuality, of personal feeling
about it.

Fear of plots has led to precautions that are positively
incredible. The importation of all explosive and inflam-
mable matter is stiictly prohibited. At no cost whatever
can engineers procure dynamite with which to carry on
their operations ; agriculturists dare not purchase sulphate
of carbon, though it would save their vines from the ravages
of the phylloxei-a. Even to regiments, no blank cartridges
are served out when on drill. Occasionally the sale of
fireworks is forbidden ; the experiments with electric light
have been suspended ; telephones are also under the ban.
It has never been possible to establish telegraphic communi-
cation between the Tower of Galata, where are stationed
the watchers who signal fires, and the head-quarters of the
local dre-brigade at Taxim, which is at the other end of the
town. And so runners, barefoot and dressed in red rags,
have to carry the news across the whole length of Pera and
first send the firemen to their work.

Another fact more curious still ; a fact that borders on
buflbonery. The local post has been suppressed ! Why ?
Because certain droll fellows took it into their head to
write comic letters to the Sultan and to the Grand Vizier.
Immediately like a thunderbolt comes the decree ; from
head-quarters the local post is struck dead by it — is
abolished ! The red letter-boxes with their white crescent
still sadly cling to walls at many a street-corner, and the
pretty new stamps serve to enrich the album of the
assiduous collector. To-day, throughout the whole of

102 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Constantinople and its suburbs it is impossible to communi-
cate with anyone by stamped, directed letter. You must
send a friend or your servant ; and if you have not either
of these commodities, you must go yourself, perhaps hire a
horse and certainly lose half-a-day. What a charming aid
is this to commerce !

Such are some of the lamentable results of the work of
rapacious Court hangers-on and parasites who only try to
terrify their sovereign and poison his peace of mind. It
may well be that the tragic fate of his predecessors inclines
the Sultan to melancholy and sad thoughts ; but the fact is
noteworthy that all revolutions have had their birth in the
palace itself, among the relatives or the courtiers of the
sovereign. No people is more devoted, more trusting,
more patient or more reverent than the Turkish nation.
Did the Padishah summon them, in a moment a hundred
thousand breasts were bared to defend his own. And yet
against a people such as this he raises up eveiy possible
entrenchment ; and he looks for safety in the centre of his
most dangerous foes. That is why Turkey resembles a
Hock without a shepherd. Sovereign and people live too
far apart ; they are severed by a massive immovable line of
courtiers who from the sovereign's hand take the money thjvt
l)y right belongs to the people.

In all these lavish expressions of fidelity the Sultan,
however, would appear to put but slender trust. Exce})t
at Selamlik, he rarely shows himself to the Palace crew ;
he lives in seclusion in his apartments, surrounded by
certain officers personally attached to him, and upon whose
loyalty and devotion he can count. As to the others, he
l)oards and lodges tiiem ; for. failing that, they might eat

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 103

him up. He lives in perpetual fear of poison ; and expert
chemists are specially told off to analyse his food. Poison,
indeed, has ever been a common method for getting rid of
disagreeable Sultans ; so on this score he has every reason
to be afraid. To make sure of the faithfulness" of all his
protectors he refuses none of their requests, but heaps
favours and kindness upon them. Alas! devotion which
is bought has never the worth of that which is freely
given, which "is all for love and nothing for reward."

Such is the troubled, sad existence of the Padishah. It
would verily need a Colbert, honest, blunt, and brutal to
make a clean sweep of all these useless Palace vermin, and
let the money now squandered upon them be put to a
patriotic use. Alas ! in Europe, Colberts are extinct ; in
Turkey they Avould be assassinated, and that right soon.

CHAPTER V.

rilE INTERIOR OF A GOVERNMENT OFFICE. PROFILE OF A

MINISTER. — ETERNAL VACATIONS. THE ART OF OBTAIN-
ING CONCESSIONS AND OP NOT PROFITING BY TIIEM.

To MAKE a minute anatomical study of a Turkish Govern-
ment office, one must get inside that rotten hulk called a
Ministry, and examine its rickety, tumble-down state
within. So, for this purpose let us proceed to Stamboul,
climbing the narrow, dirty, break-neck streets which lead
up to the hill on which the Seraskierate or War Office
stands ; and there we shall be face to face with one of
those heavy, massive buildings that are copies (and bad
copies, too), of European barracks.

In the court-yard surges a clamorous crowd of Turkish
women, all pushing, shouting, gesticulating before a grating,
at which the face of an imperturbable clerk appears.
Those not in the front row tie their petitions or documents
to the tips of their umbrellas, and push them under the
nose of the imperturbable clerk, or else wave them franti-
cally in the air, while such ladies as are strongest of limb

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 105

and of nerve try to break through the motley throng, amid
much cackling and many screams. Most of these poor
women are widows and daughters of officials who come to
get the miserable pension awarded to them by the State.
How many weary hours are theirs of waiting, and how
often they come and yet return and come again, Allah
only knows ! Some squat stoically in a corner of the
court-yard ; and seeing them thus huddled together with
their chin upon their knees, one is convinced that no woman
takes up so little room upon earth as a Turkish woman.
Others smoke cigarettes to while away the time, or drink
water wliich they draw from an adjacent well. Some
bring their babies witli them and rock them in an impromptu
cradle made by a shawl slung to a bush. All of them wail
and lament indignantly, showing to each other the papers
they hold, with the Imperial cypher and an infinity of
muJiurs or stamps upon it

Let us pass through this circle of unfortunates and go
into the building itself. At the foot of the staircase we
find an apartment where shoes and goloshes are left. In
Europe the impression still obtains that this habit, in the
East, of taking off one's shoes on entering a mosque is due
to a religious motive. Nothing of the kind ; it is simply
done for cleanliness' sake. Dust lies a foot thick in the
streets in summer, and in winter the rich lilack mud is
more than half a metre in depth, so that Turks have to
wear over-shoes, or double shoes, goloshes, in fact, which not
only outside every mosque but at the thresliold of every
decently furnished house they are obliged to leave. There
is all the more reason for this as the floors on which they
walk are usually covered witli handsome carpets and rugs.

io6 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Unfortunately Ottomans of the lower class have not the
means of buying these overshoes, and so they merely take
oir the sort of leather cases ^hich serve as boots, and,
sockless, go into mosque or ministerial mansion barefoot
and unashamed. Let us hasten to add that owing to the
frequent ablutions prescribed by the Coran, the state of
these corporal extremities leaves i-arely aught to be desired.
Many Turks in Constantinople wear boots of the European
sort with elastic sides, but they still persist in taking them
off when in a house or on board a Bosphorus steamer, sitting
undiscomfited in their socks. Indeed this is the Oriental's
invariable habit — a manoeuvre performed in three successive
movements. Movement one : off boots and on to sofa ;
movement two : draw up feet on to divan and cross legs ;
movement three : open tobacco box and begin to roll
cigarette. A pleasant type of this ceremony I once saw at
a public school on prize-day. The Government functionary
who presided had placed his boots in front of him on the
platform. These poor boots were already past their first
youth ; the lappets of their ears hung shyly, timidly down ;
they seemed to blush before the bnlliant assembly ; like
certain Ministers, they seemed to be wholly wanting in
prestige. Before embarking upon his speech, the presi-
dent put on his shabby boots again ; for him that was as
good as sipping the traditional glass of water to clear
his throat. But let us have done with extenials, nor let
us longer dally with boots outside the door. Here is the
ante-chamber ; we will enter it.

Squatting in line along its walls, are petitioners, all with
a grievance, who have come some fifty times or more to
claim money due them by the Government. There they sit

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 107

for four or five hours at a stretch, occasionally drinking
cofiee or water which last is served out to them by an
itinerant seller who carries a huge Avickerwork jar. And
when closing-time comes, these luckless persons file out into
the street with a resigned air, determined to retui'n on the
morrow. Sometimes as they depart, a clerk whispers to
them encouragingly : "Your business is being looked into,
so come back again in a few days."

Here you may see Government contractors who for five
or six months have been waiting to have their accounts
settled ; journeymen whose weekly pay has been abruptly
stopped, and of which they vainly hope to get at least a
fraction ; and many another victim of official dishonesty
and extortion. Merely to contemplate the patience and
liumility of these petitioners makes one convinced that they
will go straight to heaven ; and is not that a consoling
thought 1

They go and they come back, some of them tvwenty, others
sixty times, without ever growing weary or desperate. And
they are right ; for experience has taught them that
Turkish officials never busy themselves about a matter save
just in that moment when the person interested puts it
before them. Bureaucracy cannot walk by itself ; it must
be pushed along ; it is like a toy watch devoid of mechanism,
the hands of which must be turned round with the finger.

These ranks of resigned applicants are swelled by numerous
beggars, all ragged and ready to exhibit their hideous sores.
In one corner a dirty, shockheaded dervish with hairy chest
glares at you out of his wild eyes ; liquor-sellers stroll about
in groups ; while gambolling babies laugh and cry at will
on the staircase. A functionary of high position passes,

108 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

wlieii everybody rises ; some bolder applicant makes a
faint attempt to speak to him, but then feebly subsides
upon his haunches, gives a twitch to his bead necklace, and
prefers to rest and be thankful.

Lift up, now, the heavy curtain which hides the door of
one of these bureaux, and let us indiscreetly take a peep at
the inside. On large arm chairs covered with Aleppo silk
sosne ten or twelve employes sit in a doubled-up position.
The seats are all rubbed to shabbiness by the constant
friction of boots and shoes ; in fact, the stuffing peers out
in places. Before each person there is a small table which —
forgive the simile— resembles a night-stool ; on this are ink
and pens, besides two or three tiny trays for cigarette-ash.

Some of the employes are writing with a reed pen,
{ynleui) skilfully tracing those pretty Tuikish or rather
Arabic characters which look for all the w orld like garlands.
The sheet of paper is placed in the palm of their left hand,
for it is not customary to write upon a table. Now and
again the copyist pauses to admire as a dilettante should,
the half line which his genius has just given to the world.
His colleagues remain silent; inert, they do not talk,
they do not laugh, they do not i-ead. Plunged in their
kpj" (a Turkish expression for lazy ease) they twiddle
their chaplet which Orientals invariably carry in their
hand as a pastime and toy. They never look at a book,
a pamphlet, a newspaper. Twice during the afternoon
coffee is brought to them ; a;id from time to time they
call for a glass of water; this is the only sign they ever
give of vitality.

In the office of a Chief of Department, the scene changes.
Visitors enter without being announced ; they salute, sit

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 109

down, salute agaiu, accept a cigarette, take coffee in a little
porcelain cup without a handle which stands in an egg-
shaped socket of filigree work called zarf. This done,
they subside upou the sofa ia a comatose state. The
wretched functionary has never an instant for reflection or
for making advance in the work on hand. Beggars file past
him at every moment ; itinerant sellers of pens, of ink, of
cigarette-holders, of matches. On one chair a mangy cat
is feeding its kittens ; fleas cut their capers on all the
carpets ; while the common or household bug makes daring
ascents up tables or divans, and even ventures to scale the
dizzy heights of the official desks.

All at once from an ante-chamber, the chanting of a
muezzin calls the faithful to prayer, when some of the
clerks hasten to a room set apart for devotional purposes,
the floor of it being covered with a carpet, on which they
may kneel and prostrate themselves. Often, in the middle
of a Cabinet Council, one or two members present will
quit their armchair, and in a corner of the room, unroll
t'.ieir prayer-carpet and begin their genuflexions, the dis-
cussion continuing meanwhile.

At other times a madman will enter the Council Chamber
and yell at its inmates, but no one loses for that an inch of
his wonted gi*avity. A servant endeavours to remove
the poor maniac by arguments and soft persuasion, never
by force, for the Mussulmans have a superstitious respect
for lunatics, believing them inspired from above. I aui
convinced that some cracked people make capital out of this,
for I have noticed that the acuter symptoms of iu.sanity
rapidly disappeared on the administration of a remedy in
the form of a few ten-franc pieces.

no THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

As will be seen, working days at Government Offices
are not very numerous Friday is the Turkish Sunday,
when all the Public Olfices a^re closed, on Saturday the
Jews have their weekly day of rest, when some of the
Banks and most of the big financial houses are not open ;
and Government offices do little or nothing. On Sunday
tliey keep holiday again, for all Armenians and Greeks,
remain at home. On Wednesday, there is a Cabinet
Council at the Sublime Porte, and employes never come to
their offices on that day. So only Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday and a part of Saturday remain as working days,
and, on Monday, matters do not make great progress, for it
is difficult to set to work after three consecutive days of
sweet sloth ! Besides these holidays, there are Turkish
festivals and eves of festivals ; tlie Ramazan, the Bairam,
the Courban-Bairam, the Anniversaries of the Sultan's
birth and accession, the Armenian and Greek feast-days,
etc., etc.

Much abuse has been levelled at the cartons verts used by
French authorities, but what are they by the side of the
enormous boxes which stand in Turkish Ministerial lobbies,
covered with cowhide and studded with huge copper nails.
In these are preserved all Ottoman official documents that
are packed away there in fine disorder. A Levantine of
caustic tongue said once to me : "You see that the Turks
are always thinking of their forthcoming flitting ; they
have already packed up their archives."

We have just examined the material conditions of Turkish
bureaucracy ; now let us endeavour to define the spirit of
it. What little we have said was with a view to point out
their blind adherence to a fossil routine, and their adaman-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. Ill

tine resistance to all Western ideas. They fight shy of the
European because they are afraid of work ; every step
forward needs an effort, so they say, " For heaven's sake let
there be no progress, so that we may remain tranquil !"

What firm will and what patience are needed by the
unlucky concessionist who has at last formulated his demand
for a concession, and seeks to obtain the Imperial firman !
How many resolute competitors liave not repented their
rashness in starting upon so ill-starred an enterprise I
Some, disgusted, have abruptly broken off aU their negotia-
tions ; others, unwilling to sacrifice the heavy sums already
spent in preparing the way to success, linger on, hoping
against hope. Six or seven years of chagrin and suspense
are often wasted in this way ; and the concessionist may
count himself lucky if the Government do not basely put
into the contract some apocryphal clause of such insidious
a nature as practically to ruin the whole enterprise.

From all the many examples of this, let us choose that of
3kl. Moutran, who for many years past has solicited the
permission to construct quays along the Golden Horn.
For Constantinople this would prove a source of wealth,
and help greatly to make the city healthier. All steameis
and merchant vessels have to anchor in mid-sti'eam ; they
cannot approach a wharf, for none exists; and passengers
or goods have to be transferred to land in boats and barges.
When once goods are brought on shore, they have to 1 e
carried by kamals (the street porters), or else brought in
little rickety bullock-carts to their destination. Things
could have been no worse than this in the fifteenth century.
In this respect Constantinople is four centuries behit;d
Smyrna and Alexandria. Well, to obtain the concession

M2 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

for these quays, M Moutran (who has already furnished
Turkey with excellent light-houses) had to spend more than
half a million of francs ; but without any result. Apropos
of this, the following pretty story was told.

Some years ago, as the festival of Bairam drew near,
there was absolutely no money in the Treasury ! How
terribly embarrassing ! For this is a time for merry-making
and rejoicing with high and low, both in public and in
private. It is like the Giaour's Christniastide, when gifts
and visits are exchanged. Sweetmeats and sugar are then
freely distributed, so that the festival has come to be styled
Ghe,he,r Bairam or the Sugar Feast. For four days guns
are fired ; vessels in harbour are gay with flags ; there are
official receptions and brilliant illuminations. But fore-
most above all other pleasant surprises, are the money
presents which His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, distributes
among his faithful subjects, to officers, to functionaries, and
others. All the soldiers of the Constantinople garrison
(and it is a very large one) are invited in batches, during
Ramazan, to dine at the Palace, and each receives a gift of
money. For a whole month, then, the Sovereign entertains
from six hundred to seven hundred persons every evening ;
and the bill thus run up is no trifling one.

That year it so happened that there was no money ; and
so there could be no fetes. The Bairam looked as though
it would be a most melancholy festival. What a bad im-
pression sych impecuniosity would make upon the people
and upon the army ! Then the authorities thought of M.
Moutran and his famous concession. In exchange for a loan,
the Government agreed to grant it to him. Proposals were
made, but so much time was spent in negotiating, that the

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 13

Bairam drew near before anything was settled. At the
last moment the Turkish authorities made up their mind;
late on the eve of tlie festival the firman of concession was
awarded to M. Moutran, who gave a glance at the precious,
long coveted document and signed a cheque for the sum
agreed upon. The treasury messengers at once rushed off
to the Imperial Ottoman P. uik, roused the cashier and by
virtue of the magical name of the Sultan, got him to cash
the cheque. On waking next morning M. Moutran looked
closer at the firman of concession. He saw that the first
part of the document was in accordance with his proposals,
but that into the main part of it certain modifications had
been cunningly introduced which rendered it practically
invalid. Furious at this, he hastened to the Grand Vizier,
tore up the firman, and with a wrath quite European did
not hesitate to give him a piece of his mind. Happily by
virtue of his previous concession he was entitled to receive
the lighthouse revenues ; and so in this way he managed to
recover the sum thus — borrowed I

It would take us over long to recount the sad history of
concessions; suffice it to say that the Ottoman Government
only cares to grant concessions of a diplomatic kind.
Turkey gets her coal from England and her petroleum from
Russia and America. Yet though she possesses both coal
and petroleum in abundance, she can never decide to profit
by them. Near Heraclea there is a coal mine of some 120
to 130 kilometres in length from west to east, and 10
kilometres in breadth. In certain places the coal stratum
is four metres thick. For several years past European
companies have striven to obtain the right of exploitation

114 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

of this rich mine, but all their money and energy spent have
been wasted ; Turkey continues to buy her coal from
Cardiff and Newcastle.

As we are speaking of England, apropos of this envious
nation it seems fitting here to make certain reservations in
favour of Turkey, so that we may not be charged with
injustice or prejudice as regards the Ottoman Government.
One must admit that many improvements in the transport
service and in the construction of seaports would have been
made, if the rivalry of European States, and above all, the
insufferable egoism of England, had not created such heavy
obstacles. It is Great Britain who has always prevented
the construction of the great railway from Constantinople
to Bagdad and to the Persian Gulf. It may be urged that
if these obstacles had not existed, Turkey would probably
have carried out none of the fine schemes that she cherished.
That is very likely ; but in any case she has now the excuse
of saying that she is not mistress in her own house. The
Great Powers treat her, not as a nation, but as a question.
Every time she tries to move, there is growling in some
part of Europe. England, above all, whose capacity for
exploiting unscrupulously and ungenerously the peoples
under her sway, jealously watches each movement of Tui'key,
and would prefer to render her paralytic rather than to see
her take a step which should profit another rival nation.
Financiers have often specified to the Turkish Government
such imported articles as ought properly to be made liable
to duty, this proving a considerable source of revenue to
the impoverished treasury. But even there the Porte is not
free to act; it is bound down by treaties which forbid it

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. II5

not to woi'k its own ruin. England often waxes tender
over "The Sick Man," but yet she is careful to keep
the patient in a state of anemia from which she draws
profit.

After these few lines in defence of poor Turkey, let us
round upon her once more and reproach her for thwai-ting
and tormenting her wretched concessionists. Were an
inquiry instituted, the list of complaints made by these
latter would be well-nigh interminable, while some of the
pretexts put forward by the Ottoman officials would indeed
create amusement.

The Dercos Water Company, which supplies Constan-
tinople with water, tried to lay down a line of rail from
Dercos Lake to a neighbouring port ; but the Government
always refused to permit this, upon the grounds that it was
a railway, and that all the necessary formulae for the con-
struction of a large railway must be gone through !

At Panderma a French company asked for permission to
establish at its own cost a steamboat service between the
mouth of a river and the mines which it was working. It
could not, however, obtain such authorisation, though no
reasons for this obstinate refusal were vouchsafed by the
Porte. Hundreds of enterprises have thus collapsed owing
to the obstinacy and pigheadedness of the authorities. As
regards mining, a company may count itself lucky if the
mine in question be situated near the seaboard ; in the
interior, exportation becomes positively ruinous, owing to
lack of means of communication. The roads and paths are
utterly impracticable for carriages or carts ; all must be
carried by camels, horses or mules, and these beasts can

Il6 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

only bear about a fifth or sixth part of an ordinary load.
Tliis question of means of transport, a vital one for agri-
culture, is no less so for industry. The needful money for
road-making has often been exacted from ratepayers and it
has as often been paid. What, then, has become of it?
It has disappeared by infiltration, leaving behind it no
trace.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TURKISH SOLDIER. — HIS VIRTUES ARE HIS OWN ; HIS

FAULTS HE GETS FROM HIS SUPERIORS. THE GERMAN

PASHAS. HEROES IN TATTERS.

If the Turk as a functionary be detestable, he is, on the
other hand, an excellent soldier. Islamism may count
indeed as the type of the church militant. On Fridays in
the mosques the imam reads the Coran with a drawn sword
in his hand. War, for the believer, is an act of faith ; it
lighted the enthusiasm of the ancient martyrs.

Conscription exclusively touches the agricultural class,
the best one of the whole nation. Moreover, the Turkish
private presents a blending of qualities such as no European
soldier possesses in the same degree. First and foremost,
he is astonishingly sober ; he never touches wine or spirits ;
a handful of rice or a crust of black bread with a little
mutton, for beef is not eaten, form his sole food. Fatigue,
cold, heat, poverty, he is proof against all ; being always
resigned if death should come, his courage is dauntless.
Patriotism, or, if you will, fanaticism of the most ardent

Il8 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

kind inspires hinj, sustains him and ever holds before him
the picture of a paradise where eternal ecstasies shall be his,
after all the miseries of this earthly life. It is curious that
Christians should have imagined a material hell, with
boilers, furnaces and a whole assortment of instruments of
torture ; their paradise, however, is a purely abstract con-
ception. Mussulmans, on the other hand, are temperate in
giving details as to the punishments in store for sinners,
while they have invented an empyrean abode of the most
sensual sort. For them, the bliss of the elect is one eternal
spasm.

How often in the last war was not the Turkish soldier
forced to march fasting all day long, either because of
Ramazan or because of the negligence of contractors, who,
while amassing fortunes, suffered the army to starve ! The
poor soldier, broken in spirit by want of food and having no
wrap or blanket to defend him from the bitter cold of a winter
in the Balkans, yet fought for days together, unflaggingly
and without a murmur. He knew that he was dying for
his Sultan and his religion ; in that lay his heroism.

Though naive and ignorant, the Turkish soldier is not
unintelligent, above all things he is stimulated by a sincere
wish to learn his trade. Many a time in an angle of the
Seraskierate court-yard we have watched raw recruits going
through their musket drill by themselves, one giving the
word of command and the other obeying it. Think that
this is in Turkey, in the classic land of laziness and
indifference ; and then say if such zeal be not admir-
able !

The Turkish soldier is well-disciplined, docile, respectful
and easily led. He is an excellent instrument which the

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. Up

native officers are incapable of putting to its effective use.
All his merits are his own, inherent to himself ; his defects
come to him from without, from bad administration, from
the gross negligence of his superiors.

For instance, strip off his uniform and you will find him
a veritable savage. Look at the bands of recruits which at
certain times in the year arrive at the capital in their
national costume, and you will soon perceive that despite
the European cut of tunic and trousers, and despite all
Prussian military science, the Turkish army is but a
modern fonii of the famous hordes of Ghengis-Khan.
During a campaign, the soldiers are ferocious barbarians
armed with the last new rifle, who ruthlessly slash and
behead their wounded and dying foes who lie about the
battle-field. A foreigner, for the Turk, is always a heretic ;
it is every good Mussulman's duty to help in exterminating
the whole race. One is reminded of the Jakirs of yore who
when returning from their pilgrimage to Mecca armed
themselves with khatidjars dipped in poison and swore to
wound all Christians whom they might chance to meet.
This way of being agreeable to the Lord is no longer
tolerated nowa-days; but the idea still exists', n all minds,
the idea which gave to Oriental wars all their ferocious,
bloody character. Tlie fanatical soldier is capable of any
monstrous act of cruelty ; witness the so-called " Bulgarian
atrocities " over which there was such a scream in Europe.
Mussulmans hide their hate and horror of Giaours under a
veil of tolerance, but these passions are roused and revived
on the day of battle. At the time when sedition among
Greeks and Armenians had to be repressed, the acts of
horrible cruelty surpassed belief; whole populations were

I20 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

massacred ; unheard of tortures were devised with that
fertility of imagination peculiar to Asiatics.

Flattered by the Sultan, \yho has need of him, and
encouraged by the ulemas who see in him the last support
of Moslem fanaticism, the Turkish soldier shows an insolent
disdain for foreigners, very different from the bland courtesy
of Ottoman officials. In Stamboul and in Pera the soldier
delights to make the European give place to him in the
street, and will often push him off the pavement into the
mud ; while, if a lady be with her husband or brother, she
forms the subject of indecent remarks, which happily she
does not understand. When a European girl passes before
the guardhouse of a Turkish barrack she is almost certain
to be hailed by licentious words and gestures. If in time
of peace such things occur in the most civilised city of
Turkey, imagine what happens when a town is taken by
storm and when the soldier may give rein to his brutal
lust !

Even towards his compatriots the soldier shows a sullen
haughtiness. Tlie inhabitant of Stamboul since the last
disastrous wars may have learnt a little modesty, but the
soldier has kept all his stubborn pride of race. In liis blind
ignorance he still believes that all the sovereigns of the
earth are vassals of his Padishah. A legend still widely
believed tells liow a certain Sultan once shut up in the castle
of Seven Towers kings and emperors of all nations. After
a while in a sudden fit of generosity he sent them back to
their respective countries; but, in order to distinguish
them, he had them dressed each in a different costume,
which was at once adopted by each nation, who thus
received back their ruler and made his dress their model

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 121

until the present day. In this way Mussulmans explain
the variety in dress of the different nations of the globe.
"We would only ask them if their ingenious Sultan may
also be held responsible for the short frocks and masher
collars of modern male and female swells !

Be it noted that the defects here instanced of the Turkish
private in no way detract from his merits as a soldier. On
the contrary, fanaticism, cruelty and pride of race are
resources that in war time cannot be too highly prized.
They greatly helped to swell the military power and might
of the Osmanlis ; but that was long ago. To-day, they
only surprise and disgust, for they are signs of ignorance
rather than of real force.

The Government has made considei^able sacrifices for its
army, it being a constant source of pre-occupation. The
military budget absorbs a great part of the country's
resources. The method of armament has undergone great
improvement ; and the Turkish soldier has now an excellent
repeating rifle, the Snyder. Germany, by the way, has
just done a good stroke of business by selling to Turkey a
part of its old stock of Mauser rifles, just as previously it
sold to the same buyer six of its second-hand torpedo boats.
Krupp furnishes the artillery department with its guns
and ammunition, while all regulations and theories are
precisely those of the German army. The cavalry is
splendidly mounted, thanks to the immense purchases of
horses made by the War Oflice in Hungary. The Turks
are excellent horsemen ; and wonderful is the way they
manage their mounts, often riding these without a saddle.

How comes it, then, that with such remarkable virtues,
the Turkish army is still so faulty in the field 1 Because it

122 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

is so badly officered. The Turkish officer is ignorant and
lazy : what is more, he is so badly paid as to be almost
reduced to poverty. This daily fight with penury uses up
all his zeal and ambition. The rates of pay are most
unequal. A muchir, or marshal, gets 1700 francs a month ;
a liva, or general of brigade, gets 2000 francs. On the
other hand, a yuz hashi, or captain, hardly receives 80
francs, and a lieutenant, 50 francs, besides certain articles
of uniform. Such sums are always irregularly paid. Most
of the officers are married, and have their own little home
where they take refuge and neglect their profession, which
only brings them trouble and bitterness. Here lies the
secret of the Turkish army's weakness, in a day when the
worth of an army depends mainly upon the efficiency of the
staff officers who direct it.

The Ottoman officer is brave ; he will let himself be
killed and never yield a step. He is almost as great a
fanatic as the private soldier. In 1886 we remember to
have heard certain officers speak exultingly in favour of
the Holy War ; and this is what it is. The Sultan goes
n state to the old Seraglio, where are the holy relics of
the Prophet, and brings forth Mahomet's Green Standard,
iust as of yore French kings brought out and waved the
oriflamme before their people. The Holy War is thus
declared. Every Mussulman, according to a religious law,
must strangle his wife and children, burn his house, and
destroy everything which might link him to life. It is
a war for the desperate, who go out to battle never to
return, and who walk forth to death with hate and rage
in their heart, having but one thought, to slay as many
of their foes as they can before being killed themselves.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 23

Turkey is at this pitch, still, while Europe comfortably
entertains all sorts of grand philanthropic ideas for the
conversion of the Iieathen abroad, forgetting that the
untamed barbarian lies at her very door.

To strengthen her staff officers, Turkey has applied to
Germany for some of her best men. Since 1870 the German
Empire stands first in Europe as regards military prestige,
and the armies of all the Powers have now tried to copy,
whether rightly or wrongly, the Prussian army system. The
German Governu)ent was not slow to profit by the chance of
getting a foothold in so important a strategic position, over
which European diplomacy for centuries has wrangled. So
officers d'i'litc were promptly placed at the service of the
Ottoman Government, the most celebrated of whom is Baron
von der Goltz Pasha, well-known in Europe by his excellent
military works. These generals are all paid so largely and
so regularly as to amaze and irritate their Turkish brother
officers. Gifts, decorations and flattery are lavished upon
them ; and if one of them should show the faintest inclina-
tion to return to liis Vaterland, at once his salary is doubled
he gets another grander decoration ; his wife and daughter
are also decorated ; for the Turkish Government most
gallantly provides a decoration for ladies, the Order of the
Chefakat. Seemingly, then, Turkey has put the well-being
of her army into the hands of German teachei-s, but, in
a thoroughly Ottoman spirit of contrariety, she only cares
to listen to them, while always persevering in her old system.
The task of these genei-als, brilliant though it appear, is
not freed from disillusion or disappointment. The German,
to do him justice, is conscientious, painstaking, and an
energetic worker ; it vexes him to remain inactive, and to

124 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

see that he cannot properly fulfil the mission which he has
accepted. More than once Von der Goltz Pasha was for
resigning his command ; aikl though the Turks held out
golden offers, these would not tempt him ; upon a character
of that stamp, money had little influence. So then promises
in plenty were made that the programme laid down by
His Excellency should be faithfully followed ; but of course
these promises melted into thin air, and it needed an official
order from Berlin to keep the chafing general at his post.
A sceptical Turk once wittily remarked to one of these
Pashas: "Why does Your Excellency complain? You get
your pay and heaps of attention ; only one thing is asked of
you — namely, to do nothing Go to the brasserie ; drink your
beer ; and never thus trouble the peace of your conscience ! "
The Government only permits regiments to fire with
blank cartridge. Only think ! The palace parasites
never would permit ball-cartridges to be recklessly distri-
buted among soldiers, for who knows to what dangerous
use they might not put them 1 It is fortunate indeed that
they have left the army its Snyder rifles, not replacing these
by guns of zinc with tin bayonets. The soldier thus goes
into action having never in his life fired a rifle. In order
to teach him how to aim, a German officer has invented a
little apparatus, a kind of sight to be placed on the barrel,
which enables the instructor to control the tirer's aim and to
discover if he can judge distances correctly. For the artillery
a similar system more tiresome yet prevails. Before going
into battle the Turkish gunner has never fired a bombshell
or an obus. These facts may give one some idea of the
difficulties which meet the German Pashas in their task of
army instruction.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 25

With sucli miserable pay as he gets, the Turkish soldier
is often in tatters, his boots are split opeu and the toes
stick out of them, his trousers and tunic are faded, shabby,
torn and buttonless, his sword is rusty and bent. The
uniforms of officers leave also much to be desired, though
German influence has helped greatly to correct slovenliness
in this respect. Young lieutenants dress like the Prussians
as nearly as they can, wearing a close-fitting tunic with
double row of buttons, semi-tight trousers and plain stripe
in red or gold crosswise on the cuffs.

On Fridays, for Selamlik, the soldier makes himself as
smart as possible to escort his sovereign to the mosque.
Then all the uniforms are irreproachable and the regiments
have a very spick and span appearance. Let us specially
mention the famous negro regiment which is in Zouave dress
with turbans ; negroes indeed that are more white than
black, though the sappers that march at their head with
large leather aprons and burnished axes look like real
statues of bronze. The silken standards, richly embroidered
in silver, glitter above the flashing bayonets, while the
sturdy cavah'ymen ride past in their Kalpaks to the crash
of trumpets. The Turks have now no cavalry band, but
have replaced this by cornets-a-piston. They have also
done away with drummers for which the French have such
an affection ; and they have no regiment of cuirassiers.
German influence has brought about all these changes.

A detail which surprises Europeans is that a sentry when
on guard always has a companion sitting beside hiin with
whom he can chat. They always mount guard in paixs.
This is also done in the gendarmery and the police. If the
sun be too hot, they leave their post and stand on the other

126 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

side of the street in the shade, a neighbouring cafedji will-
ingly brings them each a stool, and so the hours on guard
are wiled away in a sweet reverie. - It is needless to explain
why there are no cantinieres in Mussulman regiments ;
they are replaced by soujis or water-sellers, who will render
the utmost service if called upon to do so.

To resume : despite the want of good officers and the de-
fects in the system of military instruction, the Turkish army,
l>y reason of its courage, its devotion and its enthusiasm, is
a formidable one. It would assuredly fight doggedly and
to the very death. If military science be wanting to it,
everybody from field marshal to private would do his duty,
and vanquish or fall together, being animated by the same
sentiments and ideas. There is neither hesitation, nor
those divisions that result from diversity of religious or
2)olitical opinion.

For the Ottoman army, perhaps the time of conquest has
passed because of its intellectual inferiority ; but it can
still resist its foes gloriously ; and from its despair, if van-
tiuished, its victorious foes will assuredly have much to fear.

CHAPTER VII.

MYSTERIES OF THE HAREM. — A TURKISH FAMILY. OTTOMAN

CIVILITY AND OTTOMAN COOKERY. A PLEA FOR EUNUCHS.

Hitherto we have made a study of the Turk in public life
— as priest, as magistrate, as functionary, as soldier. We
are now going to visit him at home, and cross the threshold
of those dwellings which for Europeans are wrapped in
mystery. Our indiscreet glance shall even penetrate into
the harem and view its secrets.

Every Turkish house is divided into two distinct parts :
— the selamlik for men, and the haremlik for women. It
is a bisexual abode. The selamlik consists of one or more
rooms where the master of the house receives his friends
his visitors or his creditors. That is the male side of the
house. The harem is joined to the selamlik by a long
passage closed by a door, " the door of felicity " through
which no profane foot of male may pass. If your imagina-
tion be vivid enough, you can suppose that behind this
door stands a grim eunuch armed with a gleaming scimitar.

128 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

In reality there is only an old beldame there, who trans-
mits tlie orders of her mistress and takes in the parcels
brought by men-servants. Harem windows are easily
recognised by their wooden gratings which permit the
person behind them to see all without being seen. Like
the ladies themselves who live there, the harem wears a
veil to screen it from the vulgar eye. It has an outer door
by which ladies can leave or enter the house, and which is
always open to their female friends. At this mysterious
portal it is not uncommon to see a Parisian milliner or a
music-mistress knocking, for Turkish ladies like to dress
now-a-days as much like Parisiennes as they can without
stays ; and the piano-sti'umming nuisance is as terrible at
Stamboul as anywhere else. Here we might say a word
or two about Turkish music.

To the European just arrived it is simply an insufferable
noise. ' The airs have neither rhythm nor key ; notes long
drawn out are suddenly followed by a startling cadence
embellished by shakes, appoggiature and twirls of all sorts.
The whole has the effect of a musical epileptic fit ; and this
impression is strengthened by the performers who, while
twangling and trilling scream lustily in a throaty nasal
voice. The intonation is as charming as that of a loco-
motive's whistle with the little vibrato at the end. It is
positively terrifying to watch the unfortunate dilettante
trying to bring out of his larynx sounds that most resemble
the mewing of a jealous tom cat. The muscles of his neck
are distended, and sweat covers his brow from which his fez
is tilted back. With half-shut eyes he howls into the void
as if he were suffering from a horrible stomach-ache. Per-
fection in this art of song consists in prolonging certain

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 129

high notes until the breath fails, and in finishing up by odd
little Jiorituri that die away in the recesses of the nose.

A foreigiier hearing all this for the first time is so
bewildered that he willingly yields to his impulse to escape
from so distracting a noise. The first impression, however,
should not be allowed to guide him. Let him forget the
quaint execution, endeavour to listen several times to the
same air and try to understand the metaphysics of this
kind of melody. He will then discover more than one
musical motive that is both charming and original. It is
of course painful to follow all these disjointed jerky phrases
that the performer vainly tries to play in six-four or eight
time. In fact, it is a wearisome essay in musical gymnastics ;
abrupt changes of key, wild chromatic ascents and declen-
sions, galaxies of false notes. But after some time it will
be seen that these airs are based upon a gamut unused by
us, but which, as a scale, is no less logically constructed.
It is—

do, r(h, mi fa
sol, Idh, si, do.

It is composed of two semi-scales formed of a tone and
a half-tone between two semi-tones. The song l)as a sweet
melancholy, a plaintive tenderness about it. Words and
melody are moreover closely connected, the former being
almost always marked by delicate sentiment. This is the
text of a romance written by Chevki Bey, which is now in
vogue : —

Hale ne/dmde adjercen sevdiguim dinl(5 beni
A benim roulii ruvanum .suven eulsunmiseni
Firkat olmassa dirgh iylemezem djan ou t^ni
A benim roulii r^vanfem s^ven enlsunmis^ni.

I30 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Memalik sana feda iylem^mek eld^midir
Her nh var ic^ heba iylememek eldfeitiidir
Ach^ken guiah ou hata iylememek eldbmidir.

When I lie on my death -bed, thou wilt mourn for me, beloved.
For loving thee, sweet heart, why must I die ?
If in this world no parting were, I had not thus given up my life
for thee.

Must I then die for thee, for loving thee ?

How shall I not give up to thee all I possess?

How shall I not yield tliee just all I am ?

How shall I not make sacrifice of all that lives, for thee ?

But this intermezzo musicale has probably bored the
reader, whom we left standing at the door of the hareiu.
So with him we will now continue our visit. The furniture
of a Turkish house is extremely simple, especially in the
selamlik, as the Turks have the good sense not to let a
desire for show make them display all their finest and most
expensive things. These they reserve for their inner
apartments. The carefully white-washed walls are rarely
papered or hung with tapestry or carpets. In some of
the finest palaces the walls are completely bare, and all
splendour and richness of decoration are reserved for the
ceilings. There are neither bookshelves nor pictures, what-
nots nor cabinets ; occasionally a frame is hung up contain-
ing u verse of the Coran embroidered in gold on a blue
ground, or in vermillion on a gold ground. A Smyrna or
Daghestan carpet adorns the parquet floor, and a large
divan is placed against two sides of the apartment. There
is no open tire-place nor stove ; but a mangal or brazier of
burnished copper, often very handsomely wrought, supplies
this want. On a whatnot of the purest Faubourg St
Antoine style stands a clock of no less pure Faubourg St

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 23 1

Denis pattern ; picturesque sconces are hung close to vulgar
petroleum lamps ; there is a profusion of staring waxwork
flowers, shrined in a glass case, and several tawdry little
ash trays strewn about here and there. The clock, be it
added, is often a musical one, and plays " La Fille de
Madame Angot," or the " Beautiful Blue Danube," for the
Turk dearly loves a musical box or a hurdy-gurdy which
turns out tunes to order. Never think to find in a Turk's
house beautiful Damascus furniture, inlaid with mother-o'-
pearl and ivory, or indeed any of those Oriental treasures
which are occasionally for sale in the bazaars, and which
remind one of the Arabian Nights. The interior of a
Turkish house at Constantinople is all that is most common-
place, vulgar and inartistic. In Arab houses at Damascus
or at Cairo one may yet admire furniture and hangings
that still keep their local colour, and preserve yet something
of true Oriental magnificence and splendour.

For the harem, again, are reserved rich carpets and divans
ablaze with gold embroideiy and velvet cushions covered
with marvellous needlework. Here, too, are draperies and
shawls of quaint design, plates of bronze and of beaten
silver, crystal goblets and all the many little Western knick-
knacks bought or received at Bairam and other festivals.
The centre of the room is always left vacant ; no table is
ever placed there, for it would only be in the way. Turks
like large rooms with little or no furniture in them ; and
their first care is to get fresh air. In this respect the
Turkish house is far inferior to the Arab one with its inner
court and fountain. But the Turkish liouse is more gay
perhaps, on account of the many windows which adorn at
least two-thirds of its front. Along the Bosphorus stand

132 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

whole rows of kiosques, which are literally made up of
windows. This shows that the main point for Turks in
building a house is to make it a well-ventilated one, where
its inmates may rest in temperate, refreshing atmosphere.

Talking of windows, let us add that the Turk, for whom
architecture and painting have little charm is on the other
hand deeply sensible of the beauties of nature ; he has an
evident appreciation for tranquil, fair horizons, and knows
how to choose sites that command views of the loveliest
landscapes. In this, one may recognise a contemplative
people.

So much for the house. Now for those who live in it.
What do they do 1 The answer is a plain one : — they do
nothing. Dressed in his loose feradji and baggy linen
trousers, the master of the house spends whole days curled
up on a divan, smoking cigarettes and looking out of window.
You will never see him reading a book or a newspaper. He
is sunk in his kief — a sort of nirvana or state of bodily and
intellectual somnolence ; a state between sleep and waking,
a state of torpor and stagnation, animal and mental.

If friends call, they are received with the most cordial
effusion. Cigarettes are brought, with coffee, preserves,
rose-flavoured cakes and mastic. After the first civilities
have been exchanged, talk, slow, grave and measured, begins.
Only after some minutes of silence does a question get it.s
answer, and conversation is always pitched in the most
moderate, friendly key. It would seem as if sage philo-
sophers were exchanging ideas pregnant and weighty with
wisdom. But listen, and you will note that these ideas
and reflections seem profound because they are totally
hollow. All is conventional, all conforms to a sort of

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 133

ritual, it is like reading a manual of conversation, it is a
mere interchange of antiquated, cut and dried compliments
mixed up with trivial tittle-tattle, vague opinions as to the
weather and the crops, and a few dull stories made duller
by the citing of antediluvian proverbs. In all such talk
there is not a single touch of a personal, individual sort ; it
is lighted up by no original opinion nor any flash of thought.
Great and burning questions for men, such as politics,
religion or social philosophy are naturally shut out from
discussion ; economic, industrial and commercial problems
are unknown, since in such servile occupations the Turks
have no part. Xobody reads anything, and moreover the
Government is careful to suppress all news. So there is
nothing of interest to communicate, and ordinary dialogue
in its poujpous monotony leaves the head empty and the
intellect sluggisli. Add to all this that the rules of civility
oblige one to pile up grand adjectives and epithets such as
"Your blessed health," "Your exalted person," " I, your
humble servant," " I, the dust of your holy feet," etc., etc.
If the visitors stay for dinner, after an interminable
period of waiting, a servant brings in a large tray that is
placed on a low table or stool. This tray holds hollow
metal dishes which contain the food. Neither knives nor
forks are served out to guests, but each with his right hand
rends the meat andjbreaks the bones, deftly severing joints
with his nails. The Turks are wonderfully adroit in this
piece-meal work. Tliey only use the thumb and two
fingers of the right hand, for one must be careful never to
put the left hand into the dish. With their three fingers
they can scoop up the pile/ far better than with a spoon.
Tlie meal is soon over, when everyone conscientiously goes

134 ■ THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

to perform his ablutions at a white marble fountain in an
adjoining apartment. In some wealthy Stamboul houses
little forks are now used, but this Western luxury is far
from common, and is rather an innovation calculated to con-
tent European guests.

One word as to Turkish cookery. It is both varied and
appetising, though always greasy and somewhat indi-
gestible. Mutton and chicken form the staple fare, beef
being rarely or never eaten, as Turkish agriculture does not
allow of oxen being killed for food. Mutton is prepared in
the form of little knobs, grilled on a spit with flakes of lard
and sage-leaves, much as they roast ortolans or heccajichi
in Italy, Chicken, whether boiled or roast, is usually
served with rice or tomatoes ; sometimes witli bamias, a
singularly slimy vegetable, like a green capsicum in form
and a slug in taste, of which both Turks and Greeks are
extremely fond. On the preparation of vegetables, how-
ever, the Turkish cook expends all his art ; the dishes of
cucumbers, vegetable marrows, tomatoes and vine-leaves
stuffed with tasty force-meat are really excellent, and
would adorn any European menu. Pilaf, the national dish,
always ends up the meal, when all piices de resistance have
been demolished. The rice should never be over-cooked,
and may be flavoured with saffron or tomato-sauce. As for
salads, their name is legion ; lettuce and cucumbers are
often eaten raw. For some of the sauces, sour milk or
yaourt is used, of which the Turks eat much. Flaky, short
pastry called paklavd, despite its bath of butter, sugar and
honey, is excellent. Then there is mahlebi, a sort of custard
made with flour, sugar and milk, with a dash of rosewater
to flavour it ; helva, pekmes and many other sweetmeats

THE EVIL OF THE EAST, 135

more or less tempting. The Turk is a past master in the
art of making sweets, sugar-plums, jams, preserved and
candied fruits and syrups. Let us not forget the rakat
locCum or Lumps of Delight which have achieved fame in
Europe, nor the eternal simit, a sort of hoop of biscuit or
cracknel, covered with grains of sesame, which the Mussul-
man nibbles at any odd moment in the day.

As dinner is often served late in the evening, it becomes
difficult for guests to return to their homes, especially if
their host's house be situated on the Bosphorus, for after
seven o'clock p.m. there is no steamer to take them back
to town. They must therefore sleep under their enter-
tainer's roof. He has mattresses put down on the floor
of the solamlik ; slaves bring to each guest a nightgown
and slippers wrapped up in richly broidered silk, and after
bidding all his friends good-night, the master of the house
returns to the harem. This habit of sleeping at friends'
houses is a general one and derives from the time honoured
traditions of hospitality. A Turk often stays with friends
in this way for three or four days before he returns home.
And, though Ottoman wives are used to these frequent
disappearances of their husbands, they still are uneasy as
to tlie reason of these absences. With much cleverness
and cunning they set a watch upon him, and between harem
and harem there is a system of private communication
which often results in tlie confusion of the faithless spouse.
Despite the seeming state of slavery in which the wife is
kept, the husband must nevertheless be very prudent and
wary when meditating such escapades. Far from having
perfect freedom — outside his own home, as in Europe, he
must for ever be on his guard, for he is surrounded by

136 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

a tribe of veiled and masked inquisitors — relations, friends
and servants of friends of his wife, whom he knows not,
but who know him well, and. will faithfully report all his
little frailties to his jealous injured spouse.

The life of Turkish dames is yet lazier than that of their
lords. It is made of visits to pay and to receive, long
shopping excursions to Pera, longer chats in the baths or
outside the mosques. At home the mother is busy with
her babies, which she brings up with more tenderness than
wisdom ; then, a great resource is afforded in dress and in
changing toilettes several times a day. Most of the Turkish
ladies, even the prettiest, paint and plaster themselves in a
deplorable fashion ; with rose and rice powder they make
their cheeks a lively white and red, while carmine paste
deepens the hue of their lips, and cosmetic darkens their
eyebrows. With antimony powder they touch up their
eyelids, so as to add brilliance and intensity to their gaze ;
they also chow mastic which strengthens the gums and
sweetens the breath, while dyeing their finger nails and even
the palms of their hands with Itenna. Parisian vagaries,
alas ! have even reached the banks of the Bosphorus, and
now fair Circassians dye their magnificent black tresses a
greenery -yallery colour, or else a flaming red, the colour of
mahogany varnish. The hair is cut short in front and
frizzed, being plaited behind, occasionally ornamented by
feathers, false flowers, or jewels, which may be distinguished
under the filmy head-dress which covers all.

Many of the Turkish ladies in Stamboul dress like
Europeans, with embroidered skirts, flounces and bustles,
but in the staring colours of the stuff and trimming of their
gowns they show their Oriental taste for bright and strongly

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. I37

contt-asted tints. Often, with a most expensive toilette,
they will wear coarse stockings without proper garters to
keep them from wrinkling round their legs. This careless-
ness is the more striking, because the Mussulman dames, so
jealously veiled in the upper part of their person, are most
free in the exhibition of their calves and ankles. It was
this which made De Amicis say somewhat maliciously that
a Turkish lady's modesty stopped at her knee and sometimes
higher. They are almost always deplorably shod, either in
double-soled shoes that are too large and too heavy, or iu
little slippers of satin and pasteboard. Their walk is
totally devoid of grace ; it is a sort of clumsy balancing
that reminds one of the rolling gait of a rhinoceros, and
gives to the youngest and prettiest woman an air of
decrepitude and age. The whole dress is hidden under
the Jh'adji, a large loose-fitting cloak. Considering that
the yashmak, or muslin veil covers up the brow and lower
part of the face, leaving only the eyes visible, it must be
granted that a lively imagination indeed is needed to fall
in lo\e with any of the Turkish ladies that one meets in
the street.

What amuses foreigners much is to see the little Tui-kish
girls taken out for a walk dressed up " to the nines " in
miniature ball dress of pink or yellow silk, with long
trains, and covered with flounces, lace, ribbons, and gold
embroidered velvet. The child's head is often decked with
artificial flowers and feathers. The little Turkish boys
often wear a complete officer's uniform, with a sword and
epaulettes. The Osnianli is very careful about his dress,
being got up with an exquisiteness which his stately
would-l)e majestic manner only sets in relief. But many

138 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

of the Turks are extremely dirty, both in their person
and in their dress. With greasy coats, dirty nails, and
dirtier linen, they lounge in the Pera brasseries over pots
of beer for hours together.

Besides dressing, walking out and chatting, the Turkish
lady has no diversions whatever. She is utterly ignorant,
and it is only lately that some little attempt has been made
at giving her instruction. True there is a most successful
school for Turkish girls at Staraboul, under the sole
direction and superintendence of a young Irish lady, but
many old Turks are full of gloomy prophecies about such
attempts to civilise, and with many a solemn headshake,
declare that it will all lead to domestic revolutions and
the breaking up of homes. Perhaps they are not so far
wrong. The young wife has neither the resource of books,
of the theatre nor of little social gatherings. Being
always kept away from men, her mind can never get that
clearness and brightness which only comes from continual
contact with male intellect; with her husband, she has only
one subject of conversation : the pleasures of the flesh ;
and in her descriptions she uses words the coarseness of
which would shock a navvy. Hers is not exactly licentious-
ness, ribaldry of expression, but rather naive, ingenuous
realism. She talks like a naturalist of the Zola type, but
without knowing it.

One very meritorious quality the Mussulman wife
possesses : she is faithful to her husband. Does this
result from those terrible laws which condemn the
adulteress to be sewn up in a sack with vipers, and flung
into the Bosphorus 1 Is it an effect of her perpetual
separation from the stronger sex, which saves the woman

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 139

from falling a victim to her own weakness, and to the
charms of an Eastern Don Juan 1 Anyhow, adultery is
extremely rare.

Those young bloods of Pera who brag of their conquests,
and the ravages they have worked in Mussulman homes,
are little more than impertinent humbugs. In the first
place, they are far too cowardly to risk their delicate
skin in romantic adventures which might all too easily
take a tragic turn. Moreover, the means of accosting and
of meeting a woman are so rare and so perilous, that such
intrigues, if they ever occur, would only owe their success
to accident. If any women do this sort of thing, it is those
whose husbands, in their capacity of State functionaries, are
called away from home to the provinces for a considerable
time.

Probably our readers will now ask us a very natural
question. It is this : — If the wife in Turkey does nothing
whatever, and if the husband only smokes cigarettes on his
divan all day, who is it that manages the house 1 Here we
touch upon a radical vice of Ottoman society. The manage-
ment of the house is entrusted to the head servant, a sort
of majordomo who orders, buys and pays. It is easy to
understand how this personage swindles his masters, taking
bribes from the tradesmen who want his custom, and pre-
senting the most fantastic bills to his mistress, who is
powerless to question their accuracy ! No family ever
knows how much it spends a year, nor what sum husband
and wife may devote to dress or amusement.

In all things Turkey is the land of the uncertain, the
indefinite. So long as there is any n)oney in the cash-box,

MO THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

gold is flung out of windows, and, as we have seen, thei*e
are a good many windows in Turkish houses !

The eflendi rackets in Per^; his wife ruins herself in
purcliases at the bazaars, while the servants pillage and
swindle with fresh zeal. When the funds run low, no one
has any anxiety, but all continue to squander until the
bottom of the money chest can be seen through the coins
that half conceal i£. Then tradesmen are no longer paid,
promises and postponements sine die are lavishly made, iu
fact, all the thousand well-known tricks to baffle duns are
used. The greatest families and the wealthiest State
officials have thus their periods of extreme penury ; and, if
you question European merchants, it is surprising to hear
quoted, as among their bad debtors, persons noted for their
opulence, and who, from their position as Government
servants, have princely incomes.

What is the poor creditor to dol In the law courts he
is not sure of justice, though his cause may be a right one;
and should lie win his case, that would be no great help.
For when it comes to executing judgment upon his creditor,
how shall this be done? The Turk's domicile is inviolable ;
lie cannot be evicted, nor can his goods be sold. As for
his salary, that belongs to the sarqf or usurer, to whom he
has pledged it at a heavy percentage. The best way is to
wait, to be patient, to call, not once, but a huiidred times
upon your debtor and try to catch him at a moment when
he has got a little money.

What plaintive recitals may bie heard from the lips of
English tailors or French dressmakers who can get no pay-
ment from their clients, and who bitterly curse the day
when first they set foot in this wretched land of debt and

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. I4I

deceit ! Occasionally the situation becomes woi-se, and the
Turk, with a certain brutal insolence, waxes wrath with
his unfortunate Christian duns. Hating work himself, he
has a deep disdain for such as live by it. In a way it is
the disdain of the aristocrat for the shopkeeper. The Turk
does not mince mattei-s, but calmly issues the order, " give
those people a beating ; " and it is carried out. We once
saw a poor Paris milliner whipped and half strangled by a
palace official of standing whom she had civilly asked to
pay her bill. Many European tradespeople, especially
women, are afraid to present their bills without being
attended by the kavas or gendarme of their consulate. The
Turk is furious at having to pay his debts to a Christian,
and regrets the good old time when the giaour could be
fleeced with impunity.

Another source of worry in Ottoman households is the
number of servants employed. In every respectable
family there are a whole shoal of domestics each with a
special function to perform and who on no account would
consent to do anything else. One opens the door ; another
draws water ; a third looks after the fires ; and so on. In
the harem there is kitchenmaid, a washerwoman, a semps-
tress, a nurse for each baby and even a woman to dress the
little girls' dolls I Then there are black slaves ; and
eunuchs.

We confess our inability to understand how, in the year
of grace, 1888, Europe still tolerates the existence of
eunuchs. A great fuss was made in favour of the
emancipation of slaves., and England, on this occasion,
took an initiative that was as laudable as it was noisy.

142 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

But, after all, these niggers from America and the
Colonies were, as a rule, fairly well treated. They were
doing useful work, for they ■\^re tilling the ground ; and,
in marriage and fatherhood, they had their consolation.
Can their lot be compared with the cruel fate in store for
eunuchs? Given over at a tender age by mercenary
parents to i-apacious executioners, they are forced to
submit to a most horribly painful operation ; and figures
show that more than half the number of castrates never
survive it. Livingstone says that two out of three
succumb, while we have Sir Bartle Frere's assui*ance that
every year a million of African negroes are sent as slaves
to Turkey, Persia, and Egypt. Out of these five of such
slaves, only one reaches his destination. Thousands of
youths are thus wantonly immolated each year, while the
others are condemned to remain all their life-time an
object of horror and scorn. What have they done to
merit this ? Is it not abominable, iniquitous that such
ferocious deeds should be done unhindered f

These poor fellows are the victims of their parents'
shameless greed and of the idiotic barbarity of the Turks.
Yet Europe which never ceases to meddle in all the Porte's
affairs has not yet found a way to put a stop to such a dis-
graceful state of things. It is a sort of homicide committed
publicly every day in Europe, in that Europe that is so
proud of its civilisation and its philanthropy ; committed
at thirty hours' distance from Vienna, Budapest or Odessa.
Will not the Western nations who once shed so much
blood to protect persecuted Christians in the East devise
a way to stamp out the remnants of such ferocious tyranny t

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 143

Is the nineteenth century, famed for its grand conquests of
humanity, to pass over and yet permit a nation encamped
on the edge of European soil to mutilate its thousand
children in such hideous wise, while letting tens of thousands
perish on the road to tliraldoin and infamy? Ftwri i
barbari I

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PERSIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. — VALIDE HAN — THE
BLOODY FESTIVAL OF HASSAN AND HUSSEIN.

We ought not to close this study of the Mussulman popu-
lation of Constantinople without adding a few words about
the Persians, who form an important element in the
Stamboul commercial world. No less than 10,000 or 12,000
in number, they live in three Hans (buildings like large
cloisters or monster barracks) where they sell carpets,
embroidered stuffs, astrachan, tea, tobacco for narghilds^
arms, and choicely-wrought metal plates and vases.

Wholly unlike the Turk, the Persian is laborious, active,
and a clever man of business. He runs along the streets,
while the Mussulman walks slowly and gravely ; he has
the true commercial instinct, real genius for trade, of which
he knows all the tricks and artifices. He is cunning, too,
and sly, telling lies with surprising dpiomb. While the
Turk does not trouble to count, the Persian counts remark-
ably well ; and, in exacting interest, is positively rapacious.
At bottom, he is more barbarous than the Osmanli, but he
is less effete ; he has more backbone ; his intelligence is

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 14S

clearer, quicker. In brief, we might say that Persia may
one day become a great nation, while Turkey is but the
remains of what was a great nation.

The Persians are to be recognised by their long caftan
(like a dressing gown) of dove-coloured stuff, tied at the
waist by a broad band of silk. Over it they wear a loose
open robe of some dark material ; their head-dress is
the well-known astrachan calpak, which nowadays is
dwindling in size, some being hardly bigger than an or-
dinary fez.

To make a closer study of the Persian colony, the
foreigner should be present at the festival of Ali, at once a
touching and a horrible one, which is kept on the 10th of
Mouharrem, the first month of the Mussulman year. As
few Europeans are usually at Constantinople when this
awful ceremony takes place, we shall give a detailed
description of it, for it counts as a most characteristic
feature in Oriental life.

A word first as to the origin and scope of this ceremony.
Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of Mahomet gave his son
Hussein as bride the only daughter of the Persian King
Yezdidjird. All's family thus possessed at once sovereign
power and religious supremacy. But, in the strife at this
epoch Ali was assassinated in the mosque of Koufa* while
his two sons Hussein and Hassan were strangled in the
most horrible manner at Kerbela, with their families and
seventy of their friends. Mussulmans in Persia still
remember this massacre with great dread and grief ; they
commemorate its anniversaries by funeral processions and
self-tortures of the most awful kind. In some parts of

* Hence the ancient writing, Koufic;
K

146 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Persia, tazieh or mystery plays are performed, in which
Ali, Hussein, Hassan, with their wives and children figure.
For many of the Shiite sects; Ali stands on the level of
Mahomet ; some see in him the most perfect and spotless
of the thousand incarnations of Allah. This idea also
obtains among certain Turks ; and even among Jewish
and Nestorian tribes. Nine-tenths of the Persians are
Shiites, differing in this way from the Turks and Arabs
who despise them. Yet the Ottoman Government, in a
praiseworthy spirit of tolerance, allows the Persians full
liberty to celebrate their festival unchecked.

The most important part of the ceremony takes place at
Valid^-Han, a huge building which, from without, resembles
a mediseval fortress. It is inhabited by some five or six
thousand Persians and has a quadrangle twice or thrice as
large as the Palais Royal in Paris. This court-yard is
surrounded by a double row of galleries lighted by ogival
arcades ; it is like the cloisters of some immense monastery
of the twelfth and thirteenth century. The galleries lead
to rows of cells and little rooms which are used as oflSces,
shops, or private apartments. In the corridors, cooking is
done for members of the colony ; and cafedjis stand at all
points ready to serve customers. The whole building is of
massive stone ; and with its granite walls, portcullis and
iron-barred windows, closely resembles a fortress of the
middle ages. And that, in fact, it was ; a stronghold in
troublous times for merchants, and a store-house for their
goods.

The Festival of Ali is preceded by nine days of prayer,
and it ends at sunset on the tenth day. The court of
Valid^-Han is completely draped with black, when night

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 147

comes on, and countless lamps and candelabra of crystal
and coloured glass are placed against the walls, Venetian
and Bohemian mirrors being hung behind ,and beside these,
that reflect the glitter ' of a thousand lights. Portraits of
the Shah of Persia, or of the Lion and the Sun, are also
displayed in every part. All round the court, sofas,
chairs, and divans are placed for the accommodation of
distinguished visitors, who come to witness the spectacle.
And soon Kavasses from the emba.ssies arrive, heralding
the approach of foreigners. Pretty Europeans, who for
two nights could not sleep for thinking of the blood they
should see flow, walk timidly up with their husbands ; and
brazen-faced ambassadresses and Levantine ladies, who, so
far from feeling shocked, stand on chairs, and, with opera-
glasses, glut themselves upon the dreadful sight. The
Persians receive these fair visitors with exquisite courtesy,
bringing, for their refreshment, tea, with slices of lemon
in it, served in little crystal glasses, besides cigarettes and
7iarghiles for the men. The Turks crowd in from all
parts, especially the ofticers and the ule'mas ; there are at
least 20,000 spectators, the galleries of the second floor
being crowded with Turkish and Persian women. The
latter are recognisable by their sad-coloured robe and
black veil of gauze, which wholly masks their face.

The festival begins : from afar the strident sound of
cymbals is heard ; it is the funeral cortege approaching.
Now night has fallen, and the great braziers, set at
intervals all round the court, are lighted, which contain
pinewood, steeped in petroleum. The flames leap up
fitfully in the wind, and weirdly illuminate the whole
scene.

148 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

The first procession passes ; the musicians, going before,
repeat, in plaintive rhythm, in six notes — mi, re, do, si, la,
sol — a tender mournful phrase', which is played by seven or
eight clarionets in unison. Each note, which has the value
of 2/4 measure adagio, is accentuated by a cymbal stroke.
It is impossible to imagine the melancholy charm of this
touching melody ; no funeral-march could produce a more
saddening effect. Then suddenly bursts of grief are heard
throughout the crowd ; it is the Persians mourning for the
death of the two young heroes, Hassan and Hussein.
While some sob mechanically, others are really carried
away by their sorrow into hysterical weeping, and the
tears stream down their cheeks. Then a ulcma or a dervish
addresses the throng, and rehearses the whole sad story
of the young men's martyrdom at Kerbela. His recital is
now and again interrupted by sobs and wails, and all his
listeners cover their eyes with their hands and weep
bitterly. The cortege then moves on : at its head walks
a man carrying an enormous staff, wrapped round with
rich shawls ; behind him floats the standard of the
Prophet, besides black and white banners, with em-
broidered inscriptions. Richly-caparisoned steeds, draped
with finely-wrought hangings and saddle-cloths, follow ;
they are the war-horses of the young martyrs' seventy
friends. Reversed on the empty saddles are two damas-
cened shields and two scimitars with crossed blades.
Another horse carries a sort of palanquin, representing
the tent in which Hussein and hin family were murdered.
Through the blue and black hangings of it are seen his
young wife with her babes. Horsemen, dressed in black,
escort this group, flinging from time to time handfuls of

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 149

straw into the air. The last horse of all has a white saddle-
clotli, and trappings bedaubed with red to imitate blood,
while two pretty doves with canniue-stained wings are
perched on the saddle, to which are bound two long gold
arrows. These birds symbolize the pure souls of the two
martyrs.

After the hoi"ses, two rows of Persians walk, beating
their naked breasts and crying in a hollow voice, "Hassan !
Hussein I " Then, the clank of chains is heard, and
another band of men passes. Their dress is black, with
white letters upon it, which makes them look like demons.
Their back is bared to the waist, and with long iron
chains, which they grasp in both hands, they whip them-
selves furiously, each stroke, as it falls on their naked
backs, being marked by the crash of cymVjals. We noticed
that these flagellants have a certain skill in breaking the
force of their self-inflicted blow before it falls ; but, for
all that, their backs are often covered with blood and
horribly wounded.

This, however, is nothing. The most awful part has
now to come. Uttering wild cries, some two or three
hundred men advance in double file ; they are bare-headed,
and wear long white gowns. They are the Nezirs. Each
with one hand grasps the girdle of his neighlx>ur ; in the
other he holds a gleaming scimitai', with which he gashes
his shaven head until the blood streams from it, drenching
his face, and staining his white gown crimson. No pen
can ever paint all the horror of this scene, which the
braziers illuminate and make more grim. So, in two lines,
these crimson, dripping heads go past, their features con-
tracted by spasms of pain and religious frenzy, and with

150 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

wild eyes ever and again blinded by blood and clotted
gore. Each Nezir has his defender, who walks behind
him, and, with a staff, breaks the force of the self-inflicted
wound. Sometimes a regular struggle ensues between the
fanatic, who would make himself a martyr, and his pro-
tector, who strives to save him from death. From some
their sabres have to be wrested by force. We saw a child
of eleven inflict upon itself such frightful wounds that it
had to be seized, and its weapon forcibly taken away.
These hand-to-hand combats, the noise of sticks beating
against bloody sword blades, the dull chop of gleaming
scimitars upon liuman skulls, the streams of blood, the
wild frenzied cries, the glare of torches ; the delirious, gory
faces ; the crash of cymbals, and the scent of resinous
pinewood — all this was as a picture for us of some grim
battle of barbarians in Asia, a contest between two rival
hordes, and, to quote the poet's words, we felt that we
were here

" As on a darkling plain,
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
"Where ignorant armies clash by night. "

Having thrice filed, past, this procession of blood-stained
phantoms moves off to another Han, and then to a third,
where they go through the same horrible tortures. When
passing before the Persian ambassador's box, the fanatics
raise their smoking, bloody sabres aloft and petition for
the pardon of certain prisoners, a favour that is never
refused.

Other processions succeed the first and the festival ends
about nine or ten o'clock at night. In 1 886 we saw some ten
thousand persons thus file past, over six hundred of whom,

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 151

the Nezirs, tortured themselves in this way for nearly three
hours. The Nezirs are devotees who have made a solemn
vow in some grievous illness or great danger. Sometimes
a barren woman will swear that if she bear a male child
he shall be a Nezir,

On leaving this hideous spectacle we go to the baths,
whither the victims have been led; and it reassures us
somewhat to find that most of the wounds are not
dangerous, being only on the crown of tlie head and liable
to heal quickly. When the unfortunate men have been
stripped and washed, hardly any trace of their gashes can
be detected. Their head is bound up in linen cloths, over
wljich they put their fez ; and their blood-stained gowns
they carefully preserve and carry away with them, as,
according to a religious law, they must inter it on the
morrow in sacred ground.

When returning to Pei-a, we notice several Persians
going home with their heads wrapped up in linen, a bloody
sabre in one hand and a hideous gory bundle in the other.
Their tranquil appearance would lead one to suppose they
were members of a corps de ballet going back to supper
after rehearsal. We recognise the tobacconist from the
corner shop in our street, the man from whom we
occasionally hire horses, and the tea-seller close to our
liouse. To-morrow they will all be cured of their wounds
and with their compatriots must go to the Great Cemetery
at Scutari and there ofier up prayers. It is in this place
that the horrible festival is brought to a close.

CHAPTER IX.

TURKISH FINANCE. — CUSTOM HOUSE OFFICIALS. -THE .SARKAF
NUISANCE. AN EMPIHE FOR SALE.

In the present chapter we shall touch upon Turkish ti nance.
At this announcement, our readere with a smile will pro-
bably shake their heads in significant fashion. Indeed, as
regards the bad reputation of Turkish finance there is
nothing more to be said ; it is a reputation that is solidly
established. At the very word " Turkish securities,"
pocket-books, purses and safes shut with a snap and a
shiver. So it is useless to write long elegies upon so
distressing a subject, though to show the causes of this
discredit may not be without interest to some.

First and foremost we denounce the irregular system of
taxation and the absurd manner in which tliis taxation is
enforced. We have already seen that Crown and Church
property are exempt fiom taxation. Being without
statistics, it is impossible to estimate the extent of land
which these two exceptions comprise, but undoubtedly it is
immense, as in the Bagdad districts Crown property is

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 53

almost illimitable ; it is only known to extend from such
and such a chain of mountains to such and such a river.
Tithes are still estimated on the promise of the crop.
Thus, when the corn is threshed, the cultivator is obliged
to let the wheat lie in the open air, in exposed places, until
it pleases the tax collector to pass by. During this time,
the grain is parched by the sun or made rotten by rain and
damp soil. Birds and other little nibblers of the field
collect tithes on their own account, and so forestall the
two-footed nibbler who represents the Empire and who
stubbornly exacts his share. Thus there is a double loss,
both for the producer and for the State.

To realise tithes the Treasury is forced to become a
grain merchant and consequently to suffer by the fluctua-
tion of the markets. If the crop be abundant, the price of
cereals falls and the State only realises an insuflicient sum.
With such a system as this, try and establish a budget !

Again : in each province a group of speculators exists
that buys up the tithes, and the reader can thus easily
imagine that an understanding has long been come to
between such speculators and the tithes-collectors. Either
party does his best to plunder the State as much as he can.
Tiie tithe may thus be compared to a stick of barley-sugar
at which everybody takes a good suck before letting its
owner enjoy it. The deficit is easily explained by the
inclement season ; imin and drought are two excellent
excuses with which to meet any indiscreet questioning.
By this system of embezzlement, therefore, the State only
gets about 60 per cent, of the taxes to which properly it is
entitled.

To remedy these abuses the Government makes over the

154 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

tithes revenues to coucessionists ; and then another diffi-
culty arises up. Tliese "serpents of the desert" who look
to make thumping profits, sho\Vsthemselves wholly merciless
towards the poor peasants, treating them with the utmost
harshness and severity. Armenians, who excel at this
kind of work, enjoy a unique reputation ; even towards
their compatriots they are inexorable, persecuting them
with truly tiendLsh cruelty, so that the unfortunate rate-
payers prefer to have dealings with the Government
employes. Then it is that some of the peasants in despair
make their escape to the woods and mountains where they
live upon roots and whatever grain they may have been so
fortunate as to hide. Of what use is it to work if they be
thus despoiled of the fruit of their labour 1

Besides the tithes, there is veryhu, an income-tax of
from ten to twenty-five per cent, imposed upon all
Ottoman subjects. There is also the hedel askerie or tax
for exoneration from military service, which all young non-
Mussulman subjects have to pay. We have already
pointed out how dangerous for the future of Turkey is this
idea of excluding from her array all Ottoman subjects who
profess the Christian faith. While seeking to favour the
Mussulman element, Turkey is surely, albeit unconsciously,
preparing its effectual removal.

The customs duty on import goods in Turkey is at the
rate of 8 per cent.; and there is a duty of 2 per cent,
imposed upon export goods. Clearly this duty at the
outset seems to have been invented expressly to dwarf and
stunt the development of national industry. In such way
Turkey thinks she favours her exportation movement !
What is yet more irrational is that corn exported from

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 155

Trebizond or from some Asiatic port to Constantinople
must be subjected to this 2 per cent, duty ; consequently
there is a rise in the price of bread, — a rise which the
Turkish consumer only encourages. This system thus
favours foreign competition, and it is often cheaper and
more profitable to get certain articles from abroad. For
instance, no one in Turkey has ever yet succeeded in
producing potatoes at a price moderate enough to compete
with those imported from Marseilles and Trieste. To eat
a beefsteak in Constantinople, one must get the beef from
Russia, the butter from Italy, the potatoes from France — -
quite an inteiniational beefsteak, is it not? Turkey only —
ah ! we beg pardon, Turkey does supply something : she
supplies the parsley.

We have already said a word or two about the "opera-
tions " of custom-house officials. Every traveller on reach-
ing as on leaving Constantinople is obliged to slip a
baksheesh into the hands of the custom-house officer, even
though his luggage contain nothing liable to duty. The
Turkish authorities calmly shut their eyes to this scandalous
proceeding. Indeed, why should they noti How else are
the wretched employes to live on their twenty-five francs a
month — if they ever get them 1 The tourist cannot avoid
giving this fee, even though he open all his portmanteaux.
Woe betide you if you ai-e refractory and protest. The
custom-house officer can then be very nasty to you and
cause you no end of .inconvenience. He will " make hay "
with your things, smashing the most fragile by sheer
inadvertence, and confiscating anything rare or valuable on
the most impossible pretext. It is all an exasperating
system of tyranny, the more odious because it masks itself

156 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

behind sham laws and regulations. But whatever you do,
never attempt to argue or dispute, or the law will of a
certainty put you in the wrongv, however right you may be.
The best plan is gently, gracefully to capitulate, and
unhesitatingly to submit to a nuisance which everybody is
obliged to bear.

At the custom-house there is no fixed scale of taxes for
goods. Custom-house offices exist at Stamboul as well as
at Galata ; accordingly differences of the most surprising
sort result. For on the same article at one office you will
pay just half as much duty as at the other. The tax of to-
day is never the tax of yesterday ; and to-morrow it is sure
to be changed, for all depends upon the official's caprice,
upon the degree of his ill-humour, upon the amount of the
arrears of salary due to him, upon his digestion or his
indigestion. Officials with yellow, haggard cheeks are
usually severer than potbellied ones of lymphatic tempera-
ment. If they have occasional half-hours of ferocity, they
have minutes, on the other hand, of suavity and matchless
courtesy. Deem yourself lucky if they only fleece you
with moderation.

Let me quote a personal case, to confirm these assertions.
When I brought my furniture with me to Turkey, by the
intervention of an Ottoman functionary, I was able to
establish my rights to exemption from paying duty, as all
the things I brought with me were not new, but had seen
service. On this occasion I was careful to present a
certificate, made valid by the Turkish Legation in Paris.
The director of one of the Custom-Houses was so courteous
as to put himself out so far as to confirm the legitimacy
of my claim. Yet, despite the presence of this exalted

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 157

personage, I had yet to pay, on the quiet, one hundred and
fifty francs to his subordinates, so as to avoid tny luggage
being overhauled and pulled about, when I should certainly
have lost countless little nick-nacks. As it was, the whole
time a spectacled " functionary " was gravely examining
all my books in a corner, throwing down such as were
displeasing to his fastidious taste on the muddy ground.
Later on I shall have something else to say as to this
bibliophile and his revision of my library. On leaving
Turkey, I had to get another new certificate, when a
superior officer was so kind as to verify the fact that I had
nothing to pay — nothing except seventy francs as a fee for
such verification !

When one has done with these douaniers, there are the
porters or hammals, who each want their baksheesh. To
them must be entrusted your luggage or your merchandise,
you must accept their prices, and meekly bear the conse-
quences of their clumsiness and brutality. For, in fact, there
is no redress, though merchants continually make vigorous
protest against the existing state of things. At Smyrna,
such tradesmen as did not buy the sympathy and goodwill
of these gentlemen were victimised in every conceivable
manner, their cases of goods being always battered about, and
occasionally rifled. A bulky volume could be written upon
tlie scandals of the Turkish Custom House, but we leave
the whole sorry matter to be treated energetically and
effectually by the several European Chambers of Commerce
at Constantinople and Smyrna. It is at least to be hoped
that they will use every effort to protect the interests of
their compatriots.

Indirect taxes have another destiny. They are given

iS8

THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

over to a vast bank, which undertakes the service of the
Ottoman Public Debt. These indirect contributions are :

Annual Revenue in

Turkish Pounds.

Salt

639,589

Spirits

220,896

Stamps .

133,122

Fisheries .

38,400

Silk

23,809

Tobacco .

759,342

To these must be added the contributions from Cyprus
and East Roumelia, at the time when this latter province
paid its tax. The control of the tobacco revenues has
been entrusted to a private company, the Regie, which
pays in to the Public Debt an annual sum of seventy-five
million piastres. This wretched Regie is an object of
hatred and execration for the Mussulman peoples, who set
fire to the depots, massacre the agents, and promote
smuggling with untiring audacity. Every day there are
tales of desperate and bloody encounters between the
coldjis, or gendarmes of the Company, and smugglers, the
latter being usually victorious.

The Public Debt is administered by a Council over
which alternately the representative of the English, French
and German bond-holders presides. This body makes
praiseworthy efibrts to develop the vitality of the six
branches of production conceded to it ; but unfortunately
it is first obliged to act in concert with the Turkish
Government which efiectually paralyses all its efforts.
Many a time the Administrative Council might have

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 159

wrought great progress in the culture of the vine and of
the mulberry as well as in the rearing of silkworms, had
it only not been obliged to draw along in its train that
drowsy, self-opinionated slug, the Department of Agri-
culture !

Events in Bulgaria have been very damaging to the
resources of the Public Debt ; especially is this true as
regards the revenues obtained from salt, silk, fisheries,
and tobacco. As for East Roumelia it has ceased to pay
its annual redevance. The State has now only the revenues
derived from passports, forests, mines, posts and telegraphs,
and the tributes of certain vassal provinces. One cannot
travel in the interior of the Empire without a passport or
teskere. It costs three francs. As for the forest I'evenues,
they can only steadily diminish, on account of the ceaseless
robbery and destruction to which they are subject. The
mines revenue is far from being that which it might be, as
the proper working of some of the richest is impossible,
owing to the want of means of communication ; and yet
few countries are so well endowed as Turkey, with argenti-
ferous lead, iron, copper, boracite, antimony, etc. In
Albania, there are huge coal-mines, while Macedonia
possesses considerable mineral wealth.

It may here be added that all the accounts of these
several imposts and taxes are in a hopeless tangle. This,
of course, is due to the muddle purposely made by tlie
collectors, who delight to trouble the water? in which they
fish. Turks usually put down totally different receipts on
one and the sauie list. Tlien, again, when these receipts
are checked, the difference in the almanacs brings about
a confusion which might rank with that of Babel. There

l6o THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

is the Turkish calendar, the Arabic calendar, the Greek
calendar, the Gregorian calendar, the Jewish calendar and
the Coptic calendar. Each d«iy therefore represents six
different dates. Thus October 2nd, 1886, is also the 20th
of September, 1886; the 3rd Mouharrem, 1304; the 20th
Houl, 1303 ; and the 3rd Tisri, 5647. We may call this
the art of muddling up dates. Go, now, and try to estab-
lish a budget with this chronological jumble and this
antagonism between sun and moon !

The postal revenues are far from brilliant, as the
greater part of the service is absorbed by the foreign
Post Offices established in Turkey. At Constantinople
there is an Austrian Post Office, a British Post Office, a
German Post Office, a French Post Office, and a Russian
Post Office. The same establishments, exist in all the
maritime and commercial towns of the East. At Smyrna
most letters are sent through the French Office. In
Europe it may seem strange to some that Turkey should
permit foreign nations to start on her soil a postal service,
which in other countries counts as a thoroughly national
institution, and which insures a considei-able revenue to
the State. More than once the Ottoman Government
made attempts to get rid of these voracious worms
gnawinff at her vitals. But the nations interested have
always objected, pleading, as a reason, the insufficiency
and the insecurity of the Ottoman postal service.
"What?" they exclaimed to the Porte. "You have just
abolished your local post, so admitting your own incapacity
to transmit a letter from one corner of Constantinople to
the other, and then you would pretend to undertake to
carry the correspondence of our compatriots all over the

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. l6l

Empire ! When you have got your own postal service
thoroughly organised, we will talk over the matter again."
So poor Turkey must drag along as best she can. It is
touching to note that the Ottomans themselves always
make use of the European post offices whenever they can.

From all this it will be seen that the Treasury revenues
are extremely limited, and, while all pressure is put upon
the people, only about half is obtained of what, under good
and sound administration, might be collected. Though on
the rate-payers these taxes fall heavily, they weigh very
little when transferred to the coffers of the State. The
greater part of the revenues is eaten up by the army, a
goodly portion being absorbed by the Palace and its swarn\
of lazy parasites, so that little remains to be devoted to
public works, to civil administration, or to education.
Under such conditions, the State is forced to have recourse
to two expedients : it does not pay its tradesmen ; it does
not pay its servants.

As regards the former, it is less at its ease than as
regards the latter. For, from time to time, some small
sums of money have perforce to be paid over to those who
furnish the Government with goods. Were that not done,
they might absolutely refuse to supply it with fui'ther
necessaries. But this is a favour that is bought dearly.
For six, seven, eight months creditors have to dun the
Porte twice or thrice a week, which represents a loss of
from ten to twelve days per month. They are led such a
dance, fi'om Dan to Beersheba, from Government office to
Government office ; and at every stage in this agreeable
jaunt, a clerk gravely sticks on to the bottom of their
petition a little slip of paper on which he has scrawled a

1 62 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

few lines. In six months' time, the strips of paper, like
the tail of a kite, have grown to the length of two metres.
The upper part being the older, has already got yellow with
age ; this peculiar change of tint is a sign that the hour of
payment draws near. Then there are most extraordinary
signatures which have to be examined and ratified by
officials who have always "just gone out;" and one also
must await the decisions of mysterious councils that never
meet. The surest plan for a State creditor is to make an
agreement with some influential official and promise him
twenty per cent, upon the sum due. In this way the
weary waiting is in some degree abridged ; though all is
not over ; for the cashier of the Ministry will do his best
to foist upon the luckless creditor paper securities that are
of little or no value ; drafts upon this or that provincial
treasury which nobody is ever likely to find. These paper
securities are called havales ; and, in converting them into
hard cash, one's loss is usually from fifty to ninety-five per
cent. We knew of an unfortunate merchant who had been
thus paid in havaUs, payable at the provincial treasuries.
In getting them cashed he spent more money than the
amount due to him, for he haJ to travel all over Turkey.
In fact, he had become a regular nomad, and talked of
living henceforth under a tent !

What, then, is the result of all this costly mystification %
Well aware that they will not be paid until after endless
delays and then only at the cost of ruinous sacrifices, the
creditors grossly exaggerate the amounts due to them,
making the sum almost double, so that eventually they
may just get half. Thus it is the State serves to
demoralise commerce. Be it here noted that we are speak-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 63

ing of the most honest tradesmen. Others, void of any
finer scruples, make an arrangement with the Government
clerks and employes to pillage the Treasury ; and it is
these persons who very quickly become rich. By chicanery
of this sort three-fourths of the biggest fortunes in Pera
have been made.

As to functionaries, their lot is really lamentable. Some
have to wait six months without ever getting a single
farthing, others have claims for back-pay that extend over
a year ; and we knew certain officials who had not been
paid for four years. This explains the wretchedness of
the official world, a wretchedness aggravated by the usual
improvidence of Turkish families who never can be brought
to economise. Some dishonest sort of profit must be made
out of one's official position ; and business must be thwarted
so as to force the interested parties to open their purses.
In this sort of semi-brigandage the official is sure of the
aid and support of his colleagues and his superiors, who
hold grave confabs and make solemn plots to swindle the
State or private individuals, much as some latter-day Fra
Diavolo might organise an expedition to carry oflT some
notable inhabitant or extort a ransom from his horror-
struck family.

Despite all this chicanery, it most frequently happens
that the functionary is of necessity forced to raise loans at
ruinous interest, and barters away his patrimony or his
future pay to the satTofs, a body of usurers of which it may
be as well to say something here.

The sarrafs as a corporation count about 4000 members,
and in principle represent the modest and angelic phalanx
of money changers. Have you no small change] Then

t64 the evil of the east.

the sarraf will supply you with it at a trifling profit. Can.
anything be more honest 1 But in reality the phalanx of
changers hides the diabolical band of usurers. These
vampires are everywhere; tranquilly seated behind their
little glass counter, they are to be found at street corners,
in passages and on the ground floor entrances to shops and
lodging-houses, while others take up their position in a
tobacconist's or a fruiterer's, or even at the door of a
Government office. Wherever you go, there is the sarraf
ready to bleed you.

And first with regard to small change, be it noted that
silver money is less sought after than the metallic. This
dearth of small money is a scourge for Oriental commerce
and the source of flagrant abuses ; it is a continual em-
barrassment and check to trade. Certain proprietors of
brasseries have even gone so far as to have metal tickets
made, worth forty or fifty paras, and these they serve out
to their clients as a coinage that has currency in every
beer shop. Yet metallic money exists, only it is all in the
hands of the sarraf s, who are too clever to let it go, but
make their living by preventing the public from getting at
it, and by maintaining the depreciation of silver.

The Turkish pound in gold is nominally worth 100
piastres, but owing to the low rate of silver, it is actually
reckoned at 108 piastres. On the other hand, 100 piastres
only represent 91 1 piastres in metallics. So it will be seen
what a fine field for their manoeuvres the sarraf s possess.
Their most reliable base of operations is of course the
medjidi^, a silver piece of 20 piastres, similar to the French
5-franc piece, but really only worth 4 francs and 20 cents.
The medjidi^ of 20 piastres is only accepted at 19 piastres ;

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 165

aud the sarraf when he changes it for you, gives you with
four metallics, three silver five-piastre pieces, on each of
which when changed you lose 10 paras or a fourth of a
piastre. So that the poor medjidie after all is only worth

18 piastres and a quarter. Moreover it is an object of
terror and aversion to everybody, and shopkeepers will
readily invent any pretext for not accepting it, and any
ruse for getting rid of it. There is no fixed rule about
this, for while banks and commercial houses in Stamboul
only take the medjidie at 19 piastres, bakers, butchers,
grocers, fruiterers, restaurant-keepers, and most of the
Pera tradesmen will accept it at its full value — 20 piastres.
Clever housekeepers, too, have a wonderful talent for
getting rid of their medjidies in the shops where they buy
things ; they know how to make the sum total of their
purchases reach just 12 or 15 piastres, so that when break-
ing a medjidie they always can get back 7 or 8 piastres in
small change. I remember well with what triumphant joy
my cook, a Viennese Jewess, came to me once and stated
gleefully that for a whole month she had only changed one
single medjidie at less than its full value, viz., at 19
piastres.

Another strange fact ! On the Karakeuy Bridge there
are two Turkish Steamboat Companies (the Mahsousse and
the Shirket-i-Hairie) for the service to stations on the
Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmora. One of these takes
the medjidie at 20 piastres ; the other will only give

19 in exchange. So, if you can spend three minutes
in going from one ticket-office to another, you may actually
make the huge profit of one piastre !

European merchants reckon the Turkish pound at 23

1 66 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

francs, and banking-houses at a rate varying from 22
francs 76 cents, to 22 francs 90 cents. The rate is very
low when it is a question of pounds to be received, and
very high when pounds have to be paid away. The
Consulates and certain European Post-Offices only take
the Turkish pound at 22 francs 50 cents,, and the
medjidi^ at 4 francs. Between ourselves, these establish-
ments ought to make a pretty living by this ingenious
system of accepting silver at 2^ per cent, below its proper
rate. True, you are allowed the privilege of paying in
European gold, but to do this, again, you must go to the
sarraf, so the whole thing revolves in a horribly vicious
circle.

As a result of all this, in Constantinople everybody is
changing money from morning till night. In the morning
you change a pound for medjidi^s, losing half a piastre.
Then, again, you change a medjidi^ and lose a piastre,
while on every five piastre-piece you lose twenty paras, or
a penny. Thus your day is spent in losing money, and
your pound, instead of representing twenty-three francs,
only realises about twenty-one. When changing money
to pay toll at the bridge, in the tramways, on the Bos-
phorus steamers, or at the Galata Tunnel, similar losses
have to be incurred, which fall heaviest upon the artisan,
the clerk, or the Government employ^. They are the
chief victims of this vile system. How are they to make
their little purchases for the house 1 They must get small
change somehow ; all the medjidi^s in the world will
never help them to buy bread. A thrifty shopkeeper
would rather refuse to sell something for a few piastres
than take a medjidi^. In not a few places you may as

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 167

well die of hunger as not, if you have only those great
white pieces of silver in your pocket.

We once knew a crafty eating-house proprietor who
made an arrangement with certain sarrafs, always to get
from them every morning a good provision of metallics.
And, without wincing, he always changed at their full
rate, making no deduction, all the medjidies that his
clients tendered to him for their lunch or dinner. As a
consequence, his restaui-ant was crowded, for everybody
came thither to dine or breakfast at a place where the
fare was good, and where the host, when you paid your
bUl, always changed a medjidie for twenty piastres
without a farthing knocked off. Sly dog ! He stuck on
a piastre here and there to the prices in the tnenu, and so
amply made up on one side what he lost on another.

But small change is but the smallest of the sarrafs'
sources of revenue. They undertake the keeping of deeds
and family documents ; they also advance money on jewels,
precious stones, and plate. Here they have every possible
opportunity to put pressure upon their hapless victims. In
view of the prevailing depression, they make their terms
each month more exorbitant, for clients flow in upon them
in plenty. As lending money on pledge is forbidden by
Mussulman law, recourse must be had to bogus sales. In
this way they at once become proprietors of the objects
left with them in pawn. The honestest among them ask
as much as 1 per cent, a week, i.e., 52 per cent, a year.
What a paradise, then, for usurers is this dear Turkey !

The sarrafs also discount State papers, and the havales
or Government drafts on provincial treasuries given in
payment to contractors or Government oflicials. These

l68 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

latter, in their distress, have to throw themselves into the
arms, or rather into the tentacles, of the sarrafs, who
advance them the amount of tJieir back-pay at the modest
discount of 50 or 60 per cent. It is strange to note that
the tax demanded is much less high for the salaries of the
first quarter than for those of the second. The financial
year begins in March ; and the sarrafs know that for the
first month or so, the salaries are more regularly paid.
Autumn salaries, again, are considered as well nigh
chimerical.

The entire Turkish authorities may be said to be the
prey of the sarrafs. Each functionary has his own
particular vampire, who draws, his life-blood. Certain of
these droll bankers manage to get hold of the salaries of a
hundred employes in the same Government office. Thus,
at one swoop, they can claim an enormous sum from the
State, and put it in a position of the utmost embarrass-
ment. The Minister of Finance, as their debtor, has to
come to an arrangement with them for the settlement of
their claims ; and he must submit to their influence.
Many stories about this are afloat — stories which no one
can verify ; certain cashiers of the Finance department
are said to have secretly agreed not to pay the Government
Officials, so that these latter might be forced to go to the
sarrafs. But let us not be too spiteful ; there is enough
matter for scandal, as it is ! As regards these sarrafs, one
has often thought of drawing their teeth and paring tlieir
claws. But, what tamer of wild beasts will undertake
such work 1 Everybody in Turkey, from the portliest
Pasha to the most meagre quill-driver, has dealings with
them ; everybody is in their debt as well. Thus, it is

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 169

impossible to do away with them ; all one can do is to
abuse them roundly.

This sketch of the financial situation in Turkey explains
the misery of the country generally, and of private people.
It is not surprising that, amid such disorder, commercial
interests should suffer terribly. Private fortunes melt
away, and wealthy families, seeing their substance dis-
appearing, are not slow to quit a country which has as its
motto and device, " Make haste to grow poor ! "

And, in truth, within the last five or six years, there
has been a general exodus. There was once a numerous
and opulent colony of foreigners ; people lived in grand
style, for money was not scarce nor hard to get, and fetes
and revels were the order of the day. By degrees, Pera
became transformed, assuming the appearance of a bright,
gay town, instead of being the home of outcasts and
failures from all nations. But this is all changed now.
The real Croesi emigrated, the stucco millionaires remained
of necessity, but they have tied their purse-strings tight ;
everyone lives at home and saves, for nobody is satisfied
with the present, nor has faith in the future. The signs
of Turkey's decay are so manifest, that each man foresees
certain, inevitable ruin approaching ; and prepares for this
by abstinence. Most persons, let it be said, look forward
to the smash as being a deliverance, a fortunate catastrophe.
Often have wo heard Turks exclaim, in a paroxysm of
selfish excitement : " Anything, anything, rather than
remain in this state ! "

The collapse has been hastened on by the famous fall in
Turkish Consols. The good Ottomans, in their simplicity
and ignorance, had set all their hopes upon these securities

lyo THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

which were worth about ten to eleven per cent. It was
charming for the Turks every six months to be able to
convert their little rectangular piece of paper into cash.
So far more convenient than cultivating their own property
at great trouble and expense ! In fact, everyone tried to
sell his estates, if he had any, so as to buy these fascinating
Consols. The very word consolidated has something re-
assuring, something non-perishable about it. Then came
the disaster which everybody knows. For the entire
population it was a terrible blow, from the petty artisan
who had risked all his little savings to the rich proprietor
who had exchanged his farms and lands for a few pages of
chromo-lithographed paper. And the country to-day is
still crushed beneath the weight of this catastrophe ; it has
neither resources nor nerve enough to shake it off. After
the immense fire of 1870, they were able to rebuild Pera,
but the smash in Turkish funds was more fatal yet, and
from its ruins nothing new may spring.

Add to all this that from time to time a war helps to
swell tiie public debt. With every campaign, Turkey
loses a piece of her Empire, and her resources are each
time enfeebled. How, then, can one doubt that the end is
near and inevitable, or that Turkey must perish or be
transformed? Yet has she vitality sufficient to bear
metamorphosis % That is the question.

The Government may perhaps gain delay by selling,
every now and then, bits of the Empire. It is the system
adopted by young prodigals who try to save themselves
from ruin by bartering away each year a part of their
patrimony. Turkey gave up Cyprus to the English ; she
has let them ruin Egypt on the pretext of re-organisation.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 171

The Porte could not prevent Roumelia from breaking
away from her suzerainty and from joining Bulgaria,
already emancipated eight years before. Turkey will have
other sacrifices as bitter as these to make, if she would
escape bankruptcy. There are still all the islands of the
Archipelago, which can be sold at auction. And then, on
part of the Ottoman territory, a board might be set up,
with this melancholy inscription :

Empirk for Sale

Apply to the Sublime Porte, Stamboul, just opposite

Courou Tchesm^.

Germany and England will do all the bidding, for Russia
would prefer to help herself without paying. France again
is so busy in setting up and setting down her Ministers,
that she seemingly has forgotten the very existence of the
East ; and only when all has been satisfactorily settled
without her and against her, will she become aware of it,
alas ! too late.

CHAPTER X.

THE TURKISH POLICE. — WHAT IS A TOWN WELL PROTECTED BY

POLICE 1 — INSURANCE COMPANIES AGAINST MURDERERS.

SPIES LARGE AND SMALL, DRAINS AND DISEASE.

What can the police be in a huge heterogeneous town,
peopled by the dregs of a hundred different nations, where
each person only tries to live at the expense of his neigh-
bour ; where manners and customs are both barbarous and
licentious ; where justice, broken up into fractions among
ten consular tribunals, becomes powerless under the rule of
a government at once weak and despotic, ignorant and
capricious, with a worthless administration and a venal
magistracy 1 Must not the police perforce fall in with
the stream of tendency making for lawlessness 1

It is indeed powerless to face all its duties, owing to the
vast number of crimes and offences. What its superiors
ask the Turkish police before all things to do is that the
town have the appearance of being orderly, and that it
shall seem fairly decent in its indecency. Thus the main
task of the police consists in preventing murder in bi'oad
daylight.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 173

It is only fair to admit that public safety in Pera is now
far greater than it used to be. As a nile, one may walk
unmolested as well by night as by day in the Grand Rue
de Pera, though it is dangerous to risk going down after
dusk to the Galata or Kassim Pasha quarters, for there die
might easily be stabbed and robbed.

Nightly assaults and robberies have moreover become
far less frequent since the introduction of gas in Pera, and
the establishment of bekdjis or night watchmen in the
streets. But yet they occur often enough. We remember
the story of the captain of some English vessel who was
accosted at midnight near the garden of the Petits Champs
by a foot-pad, who politely opened conversation by saying,
" May I trouble you for a light 1 "

" Oh ! certainly," replied the captain, drawing his
revolver from his pocket. Putting his cigarette in the
barrel he presented it thus to the thief, who promptly took
the hint and disappeared.

Pickpockets in Pera, however, are rare. Perhaps it is
that the field of their operations is not a very fertile one.
The result of their exploring their neighbours' pockets may
have been no very satisfactory one, for in Pera one must
never judge by appearances, as all that glitters is not
gold ; it is often only nickel or aluminium. Burglary still
flourishes in Pera — a modern form of brigandage much in
fashion. Occasionally some of the more famous house-
breakers are so maladroit as to fall into the hands of the
police. Then there are interminable enquiries and counter-
enquiries, all conducted in the true Turkish spirit of
formalism and indecision. It is exasperating to see how
the Osmanlis will waste whole months in bringing mis-

174 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

creants to justice and in handiag over the guilty to the
law.

Street fights occur almost every day, mostly in the
Greek and the European quarters. The Turk, grave and
courteous as he is, never lets himself be compromised
in a public quarrel. The Armenian, sly and cowardly, is
afraid of blows, and the Jew, who hardly dares raise his
eyes, would certainly never dare to raise his hand. But
the boisterous, swaggering Greek loves discussion ; he
grows hot, rants, swings his arms about, rolls his eyes and
shakes his fist in front of his antagonist's nose. Fortun-
ately, this fury is more noisy than deadly ; two Greeks
will often go on abusing themselves for an hour before
resorting to blows. The quarrel proceeds to its pitch in
terrible crescendo; then, just as the ferocious disputants
seem about to spring at each others throats, they suddenly
separate, each going different ways and grumbling loudly
meanwhile. Occasionally, however, when rage gets the
better of them, blows and boxes of the ear resound, and
their dispute is settled by the pistol or the knife.

Let us suppose that you have gone into a brasserie to
have a glass of beer. When the waiter brings it you, he
will, at the same time, tell you the news. " Yesterday, a
Greek shot a Bulgaiian at the door of our brasserie"

" Did he, really ? "

" Yes ; they began to quarrel here, but happUy we were
able to get them to go outside."

The phrase is a characteristic one ; the combatants are
hustled outside the door, simply from motives of decency,
just as one might hunt a little pussy out of the room, if it
showed any marked desire to puke. If policemen ever

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 175

interfere, to their credit be it said that they are most
energetically brutal ; they have a way of administering
kicks obliquely, which is quite irresistible.

Another important task for the police to fulfil is that of
seeing that taxes are regularly and promptly paid by
itinerant fruit merchants, pedlars, and the like. The
shouts and abusive language of these poor wretches, when
their baskets and scales are wrested from them, are dread-
ful ; a sympathetic crowd collects round the victims and
lustily performs a chorus of protest and indignation. The
delinquent is then taken to the nearest police station — a
dirty, tumbledown place, often wholly unfurnished, and
destitute even of pen or paper wherewith to write down a
report.

The Kassira Pasha quarter enjoys almost European
celebrity as a type of a suburb supreme in filth, misery
and vice. It is a valley devoid of trees, which has become
a sort of cloaca maxima for the whole city. This drain,
which is called a stream and goes by the poetic name of
"The Nightingales' Stream," runs through the whole
quarter and spreads out all its beastly contents to the sky.
The yellow water might fitly be termed a concentrated
essence of dead dog, for either bank is decorated with
the carcases of these hapless animals, that lie strewn amid
broken crockery, empty tins, and various kinds of offal.
On the banks of this pestilential stream stand numbers of
low, wooden shanties, built anyhow and huddled together
like rotten fungi at the foot of a tree. These huts are
inhabited by a whole multitude of human beings. So
narrow are the streets that two men cannot pass them
abreast ; the rain has made such deep ruts in them that

176 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

walking becomes extremely difficult. Hidden hands may-
dart out from behind walls and with long knives despatch
their victim before he has time to utter a cry. Whoever
chooses to risk his life in these places, is never sure to
come out alive, not even in broad noonday. The police do
not venture to explore such murderous dens, but let their
inmates devour each other unchecked ; and woe betide the
heedless tourist who strays thither !

Sometimes, "from a Pera hotel, the disappearance of a
visitor is suddenly announced, and not a ti*ace of him is to
be found. The consulate tries to rouse the police from
their torpor, and an inquiry, more or less thorough, is
instituted. After a while, nothing more can be done than
to draw up a report and sell the traveller's effects to pay
his hotel bill. It may safely be wagered that the ill-starred
tourist let himself be entrapped, believing some false
promise to bring him into relation with a lovely houri
who lodged in one of these terrible quarters of the town,
that never give up their prey.

Of the two routes leading down from the hill on which
Pera is built one leads to Kassim Pasha and the other to
Galata, another sort of cosmopolitan slaughter-house. This
quarter, in many points, resembles the environs of the
London Docks. It is a collection of ninth-rate hotels,
taverns, brothels, and music halls. The very place
sweats vice and debauchery. Walk up the dark, dirty
staircases of one of these low establishments, pretentiously
styled Coiicert Lyrique, Dancing Hall, etc. Tlirough the
dense clouds of tobacco smoke you may distinguish a few
ill-favoured persons who are talking a sort of volapiik made
up from ten or a dozen different languages, one and all

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 177

mispronounced. Their voices are husky with doctored
alcohol ; and at times they crack ribald jokes with the
ladies who bring them their liquor — Italians, Greeks,
Germans, Israelites ; the very lees and dregs of Western
whoredom. From time to time some draggled, painted
songstress steps on to the stage, who in the bills is styled
artiste des Concerts de Paris. In a harsh, grating voice
she trolls out a dull or dirty French chansonette, as
unhealthy, as repulsive as herself. Is this all that "Western
civilisation can send Eastwards? It would seem as if
Europe had chosen this corner of Turkey whither to
export all its refuse, its ofFal.

Amid such a rotten gang it is sti-angely sad to see bands
of Bohemian girl-musicians, with bright, fresh, smiling
faces, who have left their home to win a dowry in the
East. They make up the female orchestras, which at one
time were so popular in the Danube provinces and in
Turkey. The conductor who wields his baton over their
music controls their morals also, and is answerable for
their virtue by contract. No record exists of one of these
fair violinists having ever gone astray. When they have
finished playing their overture or pot pourri, they willingly
accept from gallant members of the audience a glass of beer,
or some cofiee, flowers, and sweets. Nor would they even
refuse a supper or a pleasure-trip to Prinkipo or Buyukderd,
on the condition that friends or their director's family ac-
companied them. Without being either prudish or bold,
they seem quite disposed for matrimony ; the prettier of
them indeed often make excellent marriages. The others
go back to their mountains, each with their modest dowry,
and they easily find husbands. In Bohemia there is a
M

178 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

district where all the young girls of their own free will
follow for some years this wandering life, learning from
earliest infancy to scrape upon a 'cello or a violin. It is a
strange and touching contrast to see these fresh-faced girls
amid such a herd of vile, vicious people ; they might be
likened to lilies of the valley growing at the miry edge of a
stagnant pond.

The entire Galata quarter is given up to vice and crime.
At night the sound of ribald songs fills the streets ; bands
of young men visit brothel after brothel ; all night long
they drink mastic or liquors more fiery, and then when
heads grow hot, there is a lively play of the truncheon and
the knife. If by chance there should be a corpse, it is so
easy to drop it quietly into the Bosphorus, which just there
is some sixty feet in depth.

We already stated that there are no wharves at Con-
stantinople, and this murderous quarter runs down sheer
into the sea, which is ever ready to engulf the victim and
shield the murderer. All this might be remedied, if along
the Golden Horn large and well-paved quays were con-
structed. Mortality and hygiene in other countries are
always closely allied. In Turkey, however, both are
paralysed.

The Ottoman police reminds us of the sword of Monsieur
Prud'homme — created to protect the bourgeois class, and,
if need be, to oppress it. Certain Ministers of Police have
made most scandalous profits by their abuse of the
arbitrary authority which is theirs. It will suffice indeed
to warn some luckless citizen suspected of this or that
crime. The poor wretch, well aware that absolute inno-
cence in Turkey is a very feeble guarantee, begins to

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 179

tremble in every limb, and tries to buy, at no matter
what price, the silence of the police. It is simply black-
mail, as levied by judges, magistrates, police-inspectors and
their subordinates.

This trick is often played, and with invariable success,
upon houses of ill-fame, gambling hells, and other low
resorts. Nor would there be great harm in this, if the
money thus amassed by taxing prostitution could be of
benefit to the State, instead of disappearing into the
pockets of certain functionaries who, in their turn, live by
the prostitution of justice.

Some years back there was a great stir about a poor
fellow accused of coining false money. The unfortunate
man energetically asserted his innocence, but it appears
that, in the well attached to his house certain tools and
instruments of a compromising nature were found. The
charge against him looked graver yet, until the hand of
the police was detected in the whole afiair. It was the
police who had the happy idea of hiding these instruments
in the unlucky individual's well. This time the Govern-
ment was forced to take action ; and the Minister of Police
lost his post. Soon afterwards, however, he was appointed
governor of one of the chief towns of the Empire ; and
an important concession has lately been granted to him.

Only lately a friend of ours was stopped in the street,
in broad daylight, by an unknown individual, who struck
him violently in the face with his fist, and instantly ran
off. Perhaps this ferocious assault was the result of an
error, but an error, anyway, of the most unpleasant sort.
The victim of it was at once arrested, and led off between
two zaptielis to the police-station ; and there he was called

l80 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

upon to pay a Turkish pound before he could recover his
liberty. His first care was to rush to his consul for
redress, but the latter sought to calm the fever by saying :

" What's to be done 1 If you like, we can institute an
inquiry, but the affair will last for months, and its probable
result is highly doubtful, for you don't even know of what
nationality your assailant was. Take my advice ; forget
the blows you have received, and the money you have
spent. We consuls have to reserve our influence and
intervention for graver matters, for criminal affairs." And
the consul, after all, was perfectly right. The moral of
this story is, that at Constantinople your country's repre-
sentative can protect you efficiently, but only after you
have been murdered ! It is a sort of posthumous protection.

Often at the bazaar a merchant, with a face like a
jackal's, has been pointed out to me by persons, who
whispered mysteriously :

" That man, over there, is the chief of the Constan-
tinople brigands."

" What 1 There are brigands at Constantinople "J "

" Yes ; foot-pads who nightly attack people, and stab
and rob them."

" And these wretches have really got an acknowledged
leader 1 "

" Of course they have ; chiefs that give them their
password, and represent them in their transactions with
the public."

The villains, indeed, do consent to negotiate — that is to
say, one can negotiate vnth them. Young bloods who like
to run risk at night in dangerous quarters of the town,
may come to an arrangement with these professional cut-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. l8l

throats. For a certain sum, they can purchase a guarantee
against all assassination or robbery ; and, if need be,
they can call in the brigand's help to rescue them from the
police. It is a sort of insurance society, where you pay so
much to be saved from nightly assaults.

There are other enterprising persons who, for a certain
modest sum, engage to thrash anyone upon whom you
desire to be avenged. So, without compromising yourself
in the least, you can administer, by proxy, a whole shower
of blows to an enemy or a dun ; " half a shower, half-price ;
quickness and despatch," etc., etc.

The operations of all these industx'ious gentlemen have
grown more complicated ever since at night in all the
streets, hekdjis or watchmen have been stationed. From
sunset to sunrise these hekdjis are on guard, and their
business is to track burglars and to prevent them from
breaking into houses. They carry a long staff having a
heavy iron ferrule, which they perpetually beat on the
pavement. In the silence of the night, this noise becomes
deeply irritating to the nerves of such as find it hard to
sleep. It is as if the hekdji desired to Avarn housebreakers
of his approach, so that they might promptly be upon
their guard. Could anybody be more obliging?

The hekdji is also there to give the alarm in case of fire.
Nothing is more grim at night than to hear the cry ringing
through the streets : — " YangJdn Var ! " There is fire !
The syllable var is prolonged until the breath gives out ; it
sounds like a long wail of despair. The cry is taken up by
the bekdjis in other neighbouring streets and soon rings
throughout the whole town. Like a distant echo one hears
it far off, at the extremity of Sta-mboul.

1 82 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

If in Constantinople there be a lack of order, what shall
be said of the police in villages and in the country 1 There
are, it is true, couroudjis or husbandmen, who look after
fields and crops, and are paid for so doing by wealthy
land-owners, but their task consists chiefly in making long
journeys to the nearest town ; and they cannot contend
effectually against marauders.

As for the gendarmerie, in number it is totally insuffi-
cient. In Albania, in Macedonia, the brigands have
become masters of the country ; they can extort ransoms
at will from the inhabitants, who would rather treat with
them than have recourse to Government protection. Wise
people prefer to sacrifice at once a certain sum to appease
the bandits ; it is a safer plan than to count upon the help
of the gendarmerie. In many places, too, an amicable
understanding is effected between the brigands and the
police. The gendarmes, badly paid as they are by the
Government and in a wretched condition themselves, are
quite willing to accept subsidies from the brigands they are
set to catch. So, by an admirable system of this sort, the
police always arrive too late, in time only to lock the
stable door when the steed is stolen. Certain bands of
brigands live on unmolested for years ; the names of their
chiefs are as familiar as household words to the police, who
are also accurately acquainted with their habits and can all
but fix upon their abode. They have their agents, their
men of business, their managers. These kings of the
Turkish mountains are real potentates who levy taxes upon
their subjects that are always most promptly and exactly
paid. They even can afford themselves the luxury of main-
taining, at their own expense, the gendarmerie of the State.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 183

Besides the ostensible police force, of whose deeds and
customs we have here spoken, there is at Constantinople a
whole host of spies. An autocratic Government like that
of Turkey, suspicious, craven as it is, cannot do without
inouchards, and to recruit these is easy in a town where
persons prompt to do any dirty work abound. The palace
spies alone are estimated at 3000. Their duties consist in
inventing and in imagining plots, and in doing harm to any
Court personage whose influence seems to be getting
dangerous. Thus they pretend to show their zeal and
aflTection for their sovereign. We never met with any
ex-employe who would consent to make revelations to us
concerning the organisation of this secret police ; but in
Pera certain individuals are pointed out as official spies.
They are mostly Greeks and Armenians, Levantines and
Europeans, who live in a free and easy style, no one know-
ing their means of existence nor their precise occupation.
There are spies belonging to all ranks and to all nation-
alities. Some slily make their appearance at tabl^ d'holt
or at public taverns ; others play the man of the world, and
V»y hook or crook get into the best society. The clerk is a
spy upon his employer, and the servant upon his master ;
there are spies and counter-spies. No one can count him-
splf safe from such vermin.

A rich Armenian may give a dinner to a few intimate
friends. With the dessert politics are discussed ; and each
guest complains of the misfortunes that are his. Next day
the host is torn from his family — exiled without a word of
warning. He gets notice to cross the frontier within
twenty-four hours. Which one of his guests was it who
denounced him % Xo one can tell, though each believes his

1 84 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

neighbour to be the spy who acted in so vile and cowardly
a manner.

A professor publishes a vplume of fables, which obtains
the hall mark of the Press bureau and of the Government
authorities. But a spy, anxious to give a proof of his zeal,
manages, by twisting the sentences, to discover certain
seditious expressions in these babyish dialogues. A fable
has always a double meaning ; it is this which characterises
such sort of writing; and so it is easy to misinterpret the
author's intentions and to make him say things which he
never dreamed of saying. The poor fable-writer is accord-
ingly dismissed from his post with the most brutal abrupt-
ness. If he complains, he may be sent off to some savage
country for change of air.

A General, who, in the last war distinguished himself,
perceives that his vines are like to fall a prey to the
phylloxera. French and Turkish specialists, when called
in to pronounce upon the case, advise the immediate use
of sulphate of carbon, a substance that is both inflammable
and explosive. Instantly, some spy rushes off to the
Palace to accuse the General of having imported the
phylloxera to his vineyards on purpose to have a pretext
for procuring combustible material designed to blow up
His Imperial Majesty's residence. In this infernal scheme
the General, so it is said, has been aided by certain evil
French anarchists, newly come from the land where kings
are guillotined and palaces petroleumised.

For some of his friends, an official asks leave to visit
the Dolma Bagtch^ Palace. Evidently this is done with a
plot as its ultimate scope and end. An engineer proposes
to set up a telephone service. A plot ! a plot ! a wicked plot !

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 85

Occasionally, this sort of thing borders 011 the grotesque,
as when the Ministry of Marine permitted the fleet to
make trial experiments in electric signalling. An order
was promptly issued to suspend such experiments, as these
jets of light flung upwards at the moon had scandalised
the entire oflicial world !

A charity fete is to be held at Cadikeui, on the Asiatic
side of the Bosphorus, and the Turkish steamboat
companies arrange to bring back the visitors to Pera and
Galata after the dancing and fireworks are over. But,
when the party breaks up, there are no steamers ! Their
departure has been ofiicially forbidden. Why ] " Because
His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, is not accustomed to see
steamers running on the Bosphorus at such abnormal
hours ; they might possibly be a source of uneasiness to
Him." It is evident that the Padishah had no knowledge
whatever of the midnight steamer-service, nor, if aware of
it, would he have created such ridiculous objections. They
were simply the outcome of the shrivelled brain of some
officious underling, who hoped thereby to win favour in the
eyes of his chiefs. But such things do not always remain
within the limits of the ridiculous.

Occasionally, foreigners, who doubtless have been pointed
out by spies as dangerous, disappear. A few days later
they are found stabbed and lifeless in some by-street.
The consulate straightway makes a fuss, and orders an
inquest to be held, while the police pretend to be
superhumanly active in tracking the assassins. Whole
reams of paper are covered with long reports and
minutes of evidence, drawn up by zealous and humani-
tarian officials. But, of course, it all leads to nothing.

1 86 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Of course, the murderer is never found. Some perfectly
innocent individual is arrested, and, after gross ill-treat-
ment, set free; or else the deceased is declared to have
committed suicide. If the poignard seem an impru-
dent means of destruction, there is always the Bosphorus.
Its blue waves tell no tales. With a block of stone round
his neck and twenty metres of salt water above his head,
of what use for a man to rise up and protest that he has
been the victim of a foul plot ! Nor is poison a weapon to
be disdained ; a little after-dinner dose of arsenic with
one's coffee, just as a pick-me-up, or rather as a lay-me-low !
Most effective this, as a means for suppressing certain
persons who are suspected and who have been exiled to
remote provinces. This is what comes of absolute power,
placed in the hands of the weak and the impotent. Excess
of energy in the means ; want of energy in the individuals.
In this way a State is brought to ruin. It was this which
destroyed the Venetian oligarchy.

Before ending this melancholy chapter, we must say a
few words about a puissant body which has continual
relations with the police ; we mean the touloumhadjis or
volunteer fire-quenchers, composed almost exclusively of
hammals (porters) or caikdjis (boatmen).

Owing to the deplorable state of most of the streets,
carriages, trucks and carts cannot pass along them, so
luggage and packages of all sorts have to be carried by
men on their back. In all Constantinople, (would you
believe it T) there is hardly a single truck or wheel-barrow.
Everything is carried by hammals, those two-footed beasts
of burden, as Th^ophile Gautier .styled them. In Con-
stantinople, there are some twenty thousand porters, most

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 87

of them Armenians from tlie Van, Sivas, and Trebizond
districts, whom speculators engage and bring to Galata,
paying the expense of their journey, an expense which the
hammals are called upon to refund by regular instalments.
These men are marvellously strong ; one of them can
carry up unaided, to the second floor of some lodging, a
piano, a harmonium, or if need were, a marble fountain.
They live in quarters, and the inhabitants of each quarter
are obliged to employ the hammals in their street, so that
these, having no rivalry to fear, can easily maintain or
even raise their tariff.

The porters as well as most of the boatmen form tlie
ancient and irrepressible corporation of touloumhadjis or
volunteer firemen. Everybody knows by hearsay or by
experience how frequent fires in Constantinople are — so
frequent, indeed, that they have almost ceased to be re-
garded as serious misadventures. They occur on an average
of one every two nights. Nor are such disasters trifling
ones, whole districts, whole villages being reduced to cinders
in a night time. For there are quarters where all tlie
houses are built of wood — crazy, sun-baked shanties, wedged
closely together, which burn like match-boxes. Only last
winter the pretty village of Arnaoutkeui, poised on the
slopes beside the Bosphorus, was destroyed in a few hours,
the flames darting their cruel tongues down to the very
edge of the water, and robbing a thousand fugitives of their
modest home. At Scutari, too, a similar catastrophe
occurred some months since, when three-fourths of the
town was burnt down, and over a thousand houses were
totally destroyed. There is no need here to remind readers

1 88 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

of the burning of Pera in 1870, when hundreds of persons
perished.

The touloumhadjis are called upon to help in combatting
such awful disasters. And with what means do they do
this ? They carry a ridiculously small hand pump, the size
of a Huntley and Palmer biscuit-tin, which perhaps holds
two decanters full of water — a plaything, in fact, a pretty
little toy ! Besides this they have a ladder, rope, hooks,
and a huge paper lantern, which is carried along at the
head of the band. No tribe of Zulus let loose for plunder
at night can compare in brutal picturesqueness with this
horde of white touloumhadjis running at full speed through
the streets on their way to a tire. As soon as the alarm is
given, the hammals strip, and transform themselves into
firemen, taking off jacket and hose and remaining in their
thin shirts and drawers. They go bare foot, too, which is
surely a strange precaution to take when walking over
redhot cinders and burning timber.

Though the touloumhadjis make a great parade of their
anxiety to rescue life and property at a fire, this is but a
hollow profession of help. They are only thieves in
disguise who loot the burning buildings. The population
fears their presence more than that of fire. They have a
marvellous scent for safes, or for those nooks and hiding-
places where jewellery or nioney is kept. They are even
accused of incendiarism, so that they may turn a penny by
the event !

After all the disastrous fires in Pera and its neighbour-
hood, the Ottoman Government determined to establish a
fire brigade, which has been organised by a Hungarian
officer, Szechenyi Pasha, who at present directs it entirely.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 189

He is the Captain Shaw of Constantinople, and his brigade
is thoroughly efficient, and proves of invaluable service
whenever a fire breaks out. But it is not sufficient in
itself to cope with every disaster. Three or four brigades
similar to this one should be organised, and the touloum-
badjis ought to be suppressed. But these latter are such a
powerful and turbulent body of men that the Government
is afraid to abolish it altogether. It shrinks at incurring
the displeasure of some twenty thousand sinewy sons of
Anak, who, if roused, would stick at nothing. There is
furious rivalry between the men of Count Szechenyi's
brigade and the touloumhadjis ; very often a free fight
ensues between regulars and volunteers while all the
houses are burning. The touloumhadjis are firmly con-
vinced that the regular fire brigade is a brigade of
usurpers, who, so to speak, have stolen their fires from
them. They despise these paid rescuers, and loudly vaunt
their own disinterestedness. But the people, who know
their worth, only mutter the prayer : " Allah ! save us all
from fire, and from the touloumhadjis" Latterly, fires in
Pera have become less serious, for when a quarter, or a
block of houses is burnt down, it is usually rebuilt in more
solid style — not of wood, but of stone and iron. For all
that, the masonry is of so poor a sort that it needs
perpetual mending.

Despite such improvements, however, the insurance com-
panies refuse to insure a lot of houses all standing together
in the same street ; they will insure a limited number of
buildings in each quarter. The rate of insurance is very
high, and it varies according as the house has a wooden

1 9° THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

staircase, iron shutters, or is placed in a good or bad
quarter.

As we are not afraid of realistic details, when to give
them may possibly do some practical good, let us say a
word as to the great question of drainage and water-closets.

In the East these latter are of the most primitive kind —
a simple hole in the ground, leading nowhere, and which,
whether by night or day, emits the most appalling smell.
Thanks to so elementary a system as this, the air in every
house is infected ; and the stink in each, insupportable. No
use for any embarrassing questions as to where is the W.-C.
By a peculiarly subtle, yet unmistakable aroma, you detect
its position immediately on entering a house. Yes,
embarrassing questions are thus avoided ; yet what a terrible
state of things should an epidemic break out in the city !

CHAPTER XI.

CHRISTIANS IN THE EAST. — ARMENIANS REAL AND SHAM.

THE FUTURE OF ARMENIA.

An Irish humorist, who has lived for many years in
Turkey, and knows it thoroughly, remarked to me once :
" It is the Christians who have corrupted the Turk." This
may sound like a paradox, but in fact it is a great truth.
For, wherever the Turk lives isolated from the Christian,
as, for instance, in the heart of Asia Minor, he has kept all
the qualities of his race — probity, truthfulness, simplicity.
He may perhaps be a pilferer by nature, and have an
unconquerable bent for brigandage, but they are family
traditions these, which tend gradually to disappear.

On the contrary, contact with Christians turns the Turk
into a hypocrite ; he becomes greedy, double-faced and a
liar. All the nobility of his character is effaced ; European
civilisation, instead of making him better, only emasculates,
softens, debases him. If the Christian be not exactly a
corrupter for the Turk, it is only just to admit that the
juxtaposition of the two races most frequently produces

192 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

fatal results as well for the one as for the other. So, at
the mouth of great rivers, the mixture of salt water with
fresh, engenders that sort of putrefaction which takes the
form of a pestilence or an epidemic.

In the same way that the Christian perverts the Turk,
so the Turk perverts the Christian. The worshippers of
Christ, who live in the midst of the worshippers of
Mahommed, are not of more immaculate morals nor of
cleaner conscience than they. They look upon the Mussul-
man as an oppressor who may be duped and exploited with-
out scruple. But the Christians act in like manner towards
each other. Co-religionists, who pray together in the same
chapel, rob each other with touching reciprocity. Why
not 1 So used are they to perpetual pilfering and plunder,
that the instinct to exploit one's neighbour becomes irresis-
tible. One must pick, pick, pick at everything within
fingers' reach ; if fingers be not long enough, one must
stretch out an arm. This is the new gospel of the East :
" My little children, cheat one another." You could
imagine that you were on a battle-field after the fight,
when marauders indiscriminately search the knapsacks and
pockets of friends or of foes alike.

What conclusions are we to draw from all this? That
this indigestible mixture of races and religions has been
one of the causes of the decadence of the Turk. It is
nothing more than a school for mutual demoralisation.
The remedy, then, is that as soon as possible, the Mussul-
man element should be separated from the Christian
element. We have seen how Greece, Bulgaria, Servia,
and Roumania fared when freed from the yoke of the
Crescent. How much did not these nations gain in

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 193

dignity of character, in energy, in morals ! For them, it
was a veritable renascence. And for Armenia, we doubt
not that such deliverance would mean the same thing.

Justly enough, the Armenians pride themselves on being
one of the most ancient peoples in the world. They have
preserved their ancient writing and their national language.
They are pi-oudly mindful that most of the excellent
fruits brought into Europe first had origin in their
country ; the grape, the apple, the pear, the plum, cherry,
quince, mulberry, gooseberry, and almond. Here, in this
region too, the savage ancestors of the dog, the ox, the
goat, the sheep, the pig, and possibly the camel, had their
existence. Thus, Armenia is a land which deserves the
respect and gratitude of Europe, while most religious
traditions are agreed in placing at the foot of her mountains
the cradle of humanity.

In their own country, in these rocky mountainous
districts, which stretch from the Black Sea to the valley of
the Euphrates and to the Caspian Sea, the Armenians are
an honest, laborious people, of gentle disposition, and
greatly attached to their beliefs and to their historical
traditions, while ignorant of the refinements of luxury.
Though by nature docile, this nation has ever had much to
suffer from the ferocity of the Turk ; and to-day, the acts
of oppression and of wanton cruelty committed by Pashas
and governors-general are over frequent, provoking coura-
geous protests from the Armenian clergy. But who in
Europe cares to suppoi-t the pleas for redress put forward
by the weak? At the Berlin Congress, the Armenian
Patriarch pleaded the cause of his compatriots, obtaining a
favourable hearing, besides a promise of reform and of
N

194 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

protection. Can anybody now say which of these protec-
tory clauses has ever been put into execution 1

Since Russia has advanced to Batoum, so swallowing up
a part of Armenia, emigration has set in, and a large
number of Armenians, living in Turkey and Persia, have
gone over to settle upon Muscovite soil, just as Mussul-
mans, quitting the Caucasus, take refuge in the Ottoman
provinces. Thus a double emigration current has been
formed, its result being to increase the number of
Turkomans resident in Armenia, and more and more to
draw away Armenians into Russia.

It is a remarkable fact that, whenever a nation loses its
independence, the members of that nation are dispersed,
and go to seek their fortune in all the points of the globe.
And so, to-day, Armenians are to be found everywhere —
in the Danube provinces, in Greece, in Egypt, in France,
in Italy, in England, in America. On the coast of the
Sea of Marmora, near Ismidt, there are whole villages
peopled solely by Armenians. In Constantinople, however,
the most important colony exists, most of its members
being engaged in commerce. Others, again, having doffed
their national pride, occupy posts in the Turkish service.
It was to these latter we alluded at the beginning of this
chapter, saying they had greatly helped to corrupt the
Turkish authorities. To save ourselves from returning to
the subject later, it may be as well to speak of it at once.

One may boldly assert that whatever is worst in the
Ottoman administration, is due to the Armenians. The
reason for this is a very simple one. The Turk, up to a
certain point, works for the good of his country ; the
Armenian works for no one but himself. Far from being

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 95

zealous to promote the prosperity and might of the
Osmanlis, his main interest is that things may go as badly
as possible. More intelligent, astuter, with greater fore-
sight and capacity for work than the Mussulman, the
Armenian is the Past Grand Master in the art of cheating.
He knows how to be at once servile and intriguing, pliable
and obstinate. To reach his ambitious ends, he will shrink
from no servile act, however degrading. Excess of vanity
makes him humble. He knows how to bow and scrape
before his Ottoman chief, whom he condemns. He pre-
tends to admire his superior, when really he is laughing at
his incapacity and his ignorance.

That for which the Armenian race receives most reproach
is its utter want of dignity of character. So striking is
this defect, that one finds it unanimously pointed out in all
works dealing with the East. Glance at the greatest and
most influential persons of the Armenian nation. Agop
Pasha, Minister of the Civil List and the Sultan's right
arm, is a remarkable administrator and a financier of the
first order. But he is surrounded by a little group of
intriguing Armenians, who dominate him and lead him to
commit acts of unpardonable weakness. Abraham Pasha,
the Rothschild of the East, won his millions by pandering
to the pleasures of the Sultan Abdul Aziz, and these
pleasures consisted in putting poor Armenian slaves on the
palace stage and causing them to be torn to pieces by
savage dogs. His brother-in-law, Nubar Pasha, the illus-
trious Egyptian Minister, has made himself the docile
servant of the English invaders and the agent of the foreign
army of occupation. Take those three men, and you have
the most celebrated.

196 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Not only does the Armenian bear snubbing patiently,
but he knows how to accept it with a smiling face and an
air of hypocritical abnegation. And when a European is
ill-treated by a Turk, he retaliates, exclaiming *' Oho ! you
take me for an Armenian, do you ? "

Many is the time that we have seen Armenians, mortal
enemies both, mutually load each other with ajSectionate
promises and walk about hand in hand, though either a
few minutes previously, had declared that the other was an
infamous scoundrel. Frank opposition, overt hostility are
things unknown to the Armenian. He delights to smell
out a secret, if need be, playing the eavesdropper and then
running off to his chief to report everything that he has
seen and heard. In all his machinations he will sacrifice,
without so much as a moment's hesitation, his compatriots,
his friends, his family. The poor Armenian peasants of
Asia Minor would have reason to fear the tyranny of their
compatriots far more than the Turkish yoke.

Some go so far as to sacrifice their conjugal honour and
speculate upon the beauty of their wives as a stepping-stone
to advancement. If they do not absolutely encourage this
kind of prostitution, at least they close their eyes upon such
peccadilloes.

The Armenian is before all things a lover of filthy lucre ;
he has a remarkable aptitude for financial questions and an
instinct for usury. The Armenian functionary may be
considered as he who brought venality in Turkish bureau-
cracy to such a pitch of perfection. If corruption did not
exist, perhaps it is he who invented it. In many ways he
is strangely like the Jew ; he has the same intelligence, the
same sagacity and servility of nature.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 197

Thus our Irish humorist was not wholly wrong in saying
that the Christians had corrupted the Turks ; let it be
noted, however, that the number of Armenian functionaries
is relatively a limited one. If the Ottoman Government
sincerely desired to winnow the chaff from the wheat and
to purify its official world, it would be easy enough to
expel certain demoi*alisers and to reconstruct an adminis-
trative body that should be wholly national. For certain
inevitable questions of a technical kind, the temporary help
of European specialists could be called in. That would be
less dangerous for the Porte than to give important
Government posts to persons of doubtful nationality, whose
aim is not to be of profit to Turkey, but to make Turkey
be of profit to them. ^loreover, as regards instruction and
professional competence, the Armenian is really in no way
superior to the Turk, but he has the talent of making the
latter believe in his ability. For this, he is so jealous of
the interference of Europeans who might destroy this sham
prestige. Armenian ofiicials have no great love for any
foreigners whom by chance the Ottoman Government may
have pressed into its service.

Let us turn now from these sham Armenians, and speak
of the really interesting portion of the nation, of that part
which has never renounced its sentiments of nationality.

With singular imprudence, the Turkish Government,
tyrannical and cruel in certain respects, has yet allowed its
Christian subjects great liberty as regards their political
organisation. Far from trying to assimilate this with her
own, Turkey appears to have been careful to respect all
their elements of solidarity, their traditions, and the sen-
timent of their community of origin. The Armenians and

ipS THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

the Greeks have their National Assembly, their Deputies,
their Finance Departments. The Patriarch, assisted by a
Council, plays the part of a veritable President of the
Republic ; and a governing body of this sort organises a
system of public instruction, directs the intellectual move-
ment and superintends charitable institutions.

As regards his subjects, the Turk is careful only to
extort money from them, and to keep them in a state of
perpetual terror. " What does it matter what they think,
provided they fear, and, above all, provided they pay."
The Government never moves a finger either to instruct
them, to better their condition, or to draw them to itself.
Is this from laziness or from disdain 1 One cannot say.
But the fact remains that the rayas possess such inde-
pendence as they could never have under a Government of
the most constitutional kind. On the other hand, they are
perpetually subjected to a system of iniquitous extortion
and of capricious persecution. Viewed from a purely
political standpoint, such a system of feebleness and
tyranny would seem to prove that the Turks have com-
mitted a cardinal blunder. A conquering nation ought
never to remain callous towards the peoples that it has
brought under ; and its genius consists in conquering and
eft'acing the antipathies that exist between its several
subjects. During past centuries, the Osnianli should have
sought to make what was individual in the customs,
traditions, and language of his rayas disappear. They
should have been welded into one body ; they should have
all been forced to serve in the army ; and public instruction
should have been developed for all. In a word, with all
these broken fragments of peoples, one solid nation should

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 1 99

have been built. But this is just what the Turk could not
or would not do ; he has awkwardly maintained a state of
dislocation, and to-day the crazy edifice looks as if, at any
moment, it might fall to pieces.

Thanks to this relative autonomy, the Armenians and
the Greeks took all trade and industry into their hands,
growing rich at the Turk's expense, having easily distanced
him in intellectual culture, and in ideas as to progress. In
fact, they are now more civilised than their masters ; and
the laws of social equilibrium tend to reverse their position,
and to put those uppermost to-morrow who to-day are at
the bottom.

The Armenian thinks himself superior to the Turk ; he
considers that he is on a par with the European, and that
he suffers greatly in being forced to live under the sway of
semi-barbarians. Thus he is wholly disposed to welcome
an emancipation, and to put himself under the protection
of a great civilised nation. If Russia should accept the
role of redeemer and rescuer, this would give her great
facilities for extending her territory south of the Caucasus.

It is mainly by his clear, flexible intelligence, good sense
and active mind, that the Armenian resembles the Euro-
pean, showing a keen interest in all discoveries and a desire
to move with the march of progress. This Oriental nation
has a remarkable affinity with the French, for whom it
professes great sympathy. The cultured Armenian speaks
French fluently, without any perceptible accent ; he is
acquainted with French literature, and reads all the
novels and newspapers so soon as they reach him from
Paris. All that occurs in the Western world interests,
captivates him, whereas the Turk, absorbed in the contem-

200 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

plation of his narghiU, takes interest in nothing. The fair
Armenians, intelligent and coquettish as they are, soon
adopt Paris fashions, and with some success ; although they
still exhibit traces of an Eastern taste for garish, inhar-
monious colours and for jewels or ornaments of enormous
size. Such a nation seems to have been created to be a
nation of tradesmen and bankers. The Armenian, if
trained to it, would also prove a good agriculturist. He
has but one idea, however, and that is money ; he only
measures a man by the length of his purse. In the East,
the sole talents of which one ever speaks are talents of gold.
As regards education, the Armenian does not count it a
means for the development of ideas, for strengthening the
judgment, for improving the morals. In his eyes, it is but
an instrument, a tool for the successful forging of business
transactions ; and he only appreciates such ideas as can be
immediately utilised quickly to make money. Of science
and scientists he has a very poor opinion ; a professor gets
little or no consideration. One only becomes a teacher
after having failed as a wholesale grocer. " To teach
clnldren to read forsooth ! Is that a trade for any man of
parts, who might earn as much as a hundred pounds a
month ! "

From such false ideas, public instruction suffers ; and so,
in the schools, young Armenians are taught reading,
writing, and above all, arithmetic — that being the art of
counting. To this, some smattering of modern languages
is added — a little Turkish, French, and English. When a
young man possesses these acquirements, his studies are
abruptly brought to a close and he is placed in a counting-
house or a shop. Moreover, according to Eastern ideas, no

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 20I

one is cousidei-ed to be a man of worth, unless his hair be
white. Thus, experience is confounded with knowledge.
Respect for the aged is, of coilrse, a noble and salutary
virtue, yet it is none the less true that the exclusive pre-
ponderance of the gerontocracy acts as a clog upon the
advance of a country, and checks it in its impulses towards
progress. Thus it comes, that Armenia is often deprived
of those of her sons, who, aware of their intellectual
superiority, come to Europe to develop their powers in
first-class Continental Colleges, and many afterwards refuse
to return to their own country, where their talents are
neither appreciated nor rewarded. In this respect, the
Armenian is far inferior to tlie Greek, who has enthusiasm
for things of the mind, and a reverence for the beautiful.

These ideas, however, have undergone change — at least,
among the Armenians of Constantinople. The National
Council has made praiseworthy efforts to raise the standard
of education in the various schools, and to permit pupils
who distinguish- themselves to enjoy a more liberal course
of instruction. Indeed, it would seem to have been under-
stood that what constitutes the true greatness of a nation
is the worth of its leading men. A nation, like an army,
must have a distinguished staff. At Constantinople,
several excellent Ai-menian Colleges exist ; and one has
lately been founded, the £cole Centrale, which corresponds
in every point to the best establishments of its class in
Europe. If the taste for instruction be not yet very
thorough, as a fashion it is gaining ground. To the great
honour of the Armenian nation be it noted that the very
porters of Constantinople, rough fellows brought into the
city from the wilds of Trebizond and Van, can nearly all

202 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

of them read ; and, sitting at street corners on their
wedge-shaped, leathern pack, you may see them eagerly
conning their newspaper while waiting for a job. This, in
itself, is a considerable result.

Constantinople counts many rich Armenian bankers
among its inhabitants. Let us not ask too closely how
their fortunes were made, for in making such inquiries we
should have to put aside all Western ideas as to rectitude
and probity. Let us not forget, though, that in the East
usury is a recognised profession, and that no person has the
slightest scruple in fleecing the Government. Thus most
of such wealth has been amassed either by furnishing goods
to the State or by lending money to private individuals.
There is no need here to expatiate further upon this
subject.

The Armenians are also reproached with want of courage.
True, in Constantinople, they give all too many examples
of their long-suffering nature if not of their deplorable
pusillanimity. But is not such a fault the result of long
and ruthless oppression 1 They have grown used to
swallowing affronts just as one may grow used to swallow-
ing cod-liver oil, without so much as a wry face. Yet
we must not forget those intrepid Armenians from the
mountains of Zeitoun, who so valiantly fought against the
Turks, They have never yet been brought under ; and
while refusing to pay any taxes, they forbid Mussulmans
to enter their territory.

The Armenians are divided into two sects, the Orthodox
or Gregorians, and the Catholic Armenians. These latter
recognise the supremacy of the Pope, and have thus drawn
closer to the Latin Church. In return, the Vatican has

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 203

made certain concessions, such as the marriage of the
inferior clergy, the observance of national rites and cere-
monies at mass, which may be said in Armenian and not
in Latin. Gregorian Armenians and Catholic Armenians
have little sympathy for each other. The latter copy
European ways and customs as closely as possible, and
possess important educational establishments at Venice,
at Vienna and elsewhere. The Mourad Rafael College and
the Convent of San Lazzaro are too well known to need
more than a single phrase of mention, though if the former
had laymen and not sluggish, dishonest priests at its head,
the nation, for whose benefit the college was founded,
could not but reap advantage.

The Armenians have faithfully preserved their national
language with its ancient alphabet of thirty-six letters,
which apparently dates from the Phenician epoch. As a
language, it is one of the richest that exists, containing
most of the sounds which the different European languages
have : the Italian c, the German ck, the Russian i, etc.
To the ear, it is singularly harsh and unmelodious, a series
of nasal splutterings, nearly every word ending with 2.
But, as a vehicle for poetry, it is said to be excellent.
The national literature, indeed, consists chiefly of poems,
and several patriarchs and priests are cited as lyrical
writers of surprising power and sweetness. We might
remark that many of the leading Armenian families of
Constantinople never converse in their own language.
Turkish or French is talked, but Armenian rarely, except
with servants.

Authors disagree as to the exact number of the
Armenian population, but private information permits us

204 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

to rate it at soinevvhat over four millions. The Patriarch
of the Orthodox Armenians resides at Etschmiadzin,
which is now in Russian territory. It is he who confers
the right of investiture upon the patriarchs of Constanti-
nople, Jerusalem, and Sis. The clergy, as a body, enjoys
great influence, for it represents the National Admini-
stration, and it directs the progress of national educa-
tion.

Owing to their easy-going, placid humour, and their
inconsistent temper, it is difficult to believe that the
Armenians will ever succeed in obtaining their autonomy.
All that this nation ought to wish is that it should become
a compact State under the protection of a great European
Power. By the logic of events, Russia would seem to be
destined to become Armenia's Suzerain Power, now that
she stands already at the doors of Erzeroum. Let us hope
that, if she ever have them, Muscovy may treat her new
subjects as they deserve, sparing them the tracasseriea
of her official world, and all the petty jealousies of her
clergy.

Armenia is a nation which merits the sympathy of all.
That people is only to be admired which, during centuries
of barbarous oppression, has kept its national language
and its national customs intact. Its faults, which are
servility, dissimulation, want of honesty and of energy, are
the natural consequences of long servitude. Once let
Armenia regain her liberty to expand, and she will become
a flourishing nation, thanks to the intelligence of her
inhabitants, to their aptitude for industry and conuuerce,
to tluiir sense of order and of economy. Let us Jidd that

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 205

Armenia already possesses painters, musicians, and men
of letters, who have gained celebrity in Europe, while
the best actors among Orientals are Armenians. Thus,
this people is called upon to march in the van of
progress through these barbarous regions ; possibly, in
its turn, it may one day play the part of civiliser and
reformer.

CHAPTER XII.

THE GREEK : ANCIENT AND MODERN. — WHAT EUROPE EXPECTS

FROM HIM AND WHAT HE EXPECTS FROM EUROPE.

PROGRESS MADE BY THE NATION SINCE THE WAR OF INDE-
PENDENCE.— FORCE OF PATRIOTISM AMONG HELLENES.

During the epoch of the Greek War of Independence,
Europe found no praise sufficient for the Greek people,
lu pi'ose and in verse their courage was celebrated and
their misfortunes bewailed, while classic memories were
called up to hymn the resurrection of Greece and to predict
its future prosperity. After such bursts of enthusiasm, a
reaction set in, and Europe proved unjust towards her
quondam hero. She seemed vexed not to find in him all
the qualities which she supposed he possessed. Still
intoxicated with the fumes of mythology, she expected to
find a nation of demi-gods, and lo ! she found a nation of
semi-barbarians ! So she denied the Hellenes even those
good qualities which they possessed. Spite, like love, is
blind.

Too soon was it forgotten, however, that the Greek
nation had for centuries been held in bondage under the

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 2O7

Mussulman's brutal yoke. To desire that Greece should
at once have all the virtues that were hers in olden time,
joined to all the sweetness and light of modern peoples,
were verily to desire too much. Of a convalescent, one
would never ask feats of strength. It must always be
remembered, that under the Turkish rule, no notion of
progress, no idea as to instruction, could ever find its way
to these unfortunate populations. Boys and young men
were afraid even to walk through the streets in broad day-
light lest they should fall into the hands of the brutal
Janissaries, who would make them victims of their
monstrous lust. At night only they could visit in mys-
terious fashion subterranean schools near the churches,
where a priest or some notable member of the colony gave
them lessons of the most rudimentary kind.

Greece has only just been born again ; and she has all
the headstrong, wilful, capricious temper of a child,
though by no means of an incorrigible child. Instead of
exacting from her premature perfection, it were more
charitable to aid her in her impetuous efforts towards this
end.

In common fairness, one ought not to judge the Greek
merely by the type seen at Constantinople. One should
go to Athens in order to know what he has already become,
and what he may yet become. With what taste and
intelligence has he not altered and embellished this
beautiful town ! What an impulse has he not given to
education and to the fine arts ! He has built roads,
organised public works, an army, a fleet ; in fact, within
fifty years this little people, which started with nothing,
for it had neither capital nor means of communication, has

208 THE EVIL OF THE EAST,

distanced its old masters, the Turks, and now takes rank
among the nations of Europe.

The Greek is gifted with astonishing intelligence ; the
commonest workman has a facility of comprehension truly
remarkable. This fineness of perception attests the anti-
quity and nobleness of the race. If it often lack judgment
and reflection, it will acquire these qualities when it can
study more completely the exact sciences. It is an in-
dustrious nation, and has monopolised almost all the trades
in the East. At Constantinople," Smyrna, Trebizond,
Damascus, even at Alexandria and Cairo, all the trades-
men are Greeks — the tailors, bootmakers, hatters, restaur-
ant keepers, grocers, glaziers, painters, carpenters, bakers ;
all are Greeks. They may be said to have all the activity
of the East concentrated within their hands. All the
shopmen, waiters, and barbers are Greeks ; so are the
dressmakers, the modistes, the laundresses. If Constanti-
nople and Smyrna have fine shops, well stocked with all
articles dear to Europeans, and arranged on the model of
the best Paris and London houses, it is to the Greeks that
such progress is due. Do away with the Greek population
in Turkey and it will be no longer possible either to eat,
drink, dress, or furnish one's house.

To these talents for taking the initiative, to this facility
for assimilation add that the Greek possesses rare aptitude
for the sea. By French Navigation Companies, Greek
sailors are always sought for; and if the regulations
allowed it, all the crews of French vessels in the Mediter-
ranean would consist of Greeks. Unfortunately for the
young kingdom, capital has been wanting to provide her
with a fitting armament, but in time, when great fortunes

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 209

have been suffered to be built up, we shall see the Greek
fleets cover the ocean.

Not that the descendant of Homer is impeccable. He
has his faults. He is notably charged with being untrust-
worthy ; his word cannot be depended upon. His honesty,
in truth, leaves not a little to be desired ; his cunning
comes very near fraud ; and he lies in the most impudent
manner, To these vices, the Greek of Pera adds others
less serious ; he is noisy, blustering, familiar, obsequious,
dissolute, a gamester and a drunkard. But faults such as
these are the microbes in the corrupting atmosphere of
Constantinople. The Athens Greek has more dignity and
self-respect ; he is sober, and his morals are neither better
nor worse than those of other peoples. He is accused of
being quarrelsome, volatile, and presumptuous ; but could
not such imperfections be attributed with equal justice to
certain Western nations 1

We are here specially occupied with the Greek residing
in Turkey, that is to say with the Greek who has not
been regenerated by the exhilarating air of independence.
He is generally detested by the Turk and the Armenian,
who affect great disdain for his turbulence and un reliable-
ness. The Greek on his part blames the Armenian for his
servile fawning nature, while he treats the Tuik with ill-
concealed contempt. Since the war of independence, since
the events in Bulgaria, the Greeks openly assume an atti-
tude of menace towards the Ottoman Government. They
are convinced that Macedonia and Roumelia, including Con-
stantinople, belong to them by right, and, in their eyes, the
Turks are worn-out usurpers for whom the day of final reckon-
ing has at length dawned. Perhaps they are not wholly wrong

2IO THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

in thinking thus; but such aspirations do not sort with the
actual resources of this little people, which has yet a vast
work of organization to achieve. Despite such magnificent
ideas, however, the Greek raya has not yet got rid of the
sly ways which mark a subject people. Hence the falseness
with which he is charged ; he has never been able to cure
himself of cheating. If he be a sharp intelligent merchant,
that is not to say he is an honest one. Too often, he only
proves to be the polumetis Odysseus of antiquity. He would
never scruple to break his word, if it suited him ; and in
honesty he is far inferior to the Turk. If summoned to
appear before the local tribunal, he changes his nationality
with surprising quickness. Proteus-like, he is to-day a
Mussulman and to-morrow a Hellene. Even the Greek
consuls complain of the part they are compelled to play
when forced to give protection to individuals whose nation-
ality is as doubtful as their morals.

The Greek is strongly attached to his religion, being in
this respect still a fanatic. It is commonly thought in the
West that Greece and Russia are closely joined to one
another by a common bond of faith. Quite the contrary 3
in this field they are implacable enemies ; and the Greek
clergy would assuredly never accept the spiritual yoke of
the Czar. The Greek religion is still farced full of super-
stitions ; at Jerusalem no festival of the Church passes over
without conflicts between Greeks and Latins ; it was after
one of these bloody brawls that Turkish soldiers were per-
manently stationed at the church and crypt at Bethlehem.
The people are wholly in the hands of the lower clergy,
whose bigotry is on a par with their ignorance. It is at
Jerusalem that the scandalous fetes of the Holy Fire take

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 211

place during Holy Week. The patriarch accompanied by
two priests enters the Holy Sepulchre and is there shut up,
where an angel is supposed to bring him fire from heaven
at which he lights tapers and presents these to the faithful
through an opening in the wall of the grotto. Then comes
a most disgraceful scuffle, when thousands of people crammed
into the Basilica push and hustle each other in the most
brutal manner while striving to be the first to light their
candles at the Divine flame. Many such devotees are
killed in the crush ; in 1884, four hundred corpses were
left lying on the pavement of the holy building ; and the
help of the Turkish police with scimitar or yataghan in
hand, had to be called in. From the flaming tapers wax
falls in streams upon the devotees, whose dress often catches
fire, their beard and hair being terribly singed. The cere-
mony is hardly over when all those so commissioned start
off" to travel through Palestine lantern in hand, bringing
the Holy Fire to their co-religionists in neighbouring towns.
Pilgrims from Russia carry back with them little lamps or
tapers lighted at the celestial flame which are kept burning
night and day. Terrible is the task for them to keep this
divine spark unextinguished until they reach their homes.
When they arrive, they are mobbed by the faithful who
come from far and near, and gladly pay dearly for the
privilege of lighting their taper or candle at the consecrated
lamp. Underneath all this religious fervour there is a spirit
of trade and of speculation. But it is useless to denounce
such abuses. All such superstitions will quickly disappear
when education, ever-spreading, shall have touched the
masses.

One of the gravest charges that can be brought against

212 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

the Greek Church is that it encourages idleness, by adding
to tlie number of its religious festivals. These are only so
many more opportunities for idleness given to the people.
In some districts, no fewer than two hundred and eighty
festivals are observed yearly. Under such conditions,
labour of any sort becomes impossible. The Greek clergy
would act at once wisely and patriotically if they did away
with so many petty feasts, on which rest from work is
exacted. That would permit the Greek nation to march
more rapidly along the path to progress ; on the other
hand, the popes themselves could so anticipate the ruin of
their influence. Indeed, one can foresee the moment
when the Hellene, with his critical mind, his turn for
reasoning, and dislike of discipline, will shake off the yoke
of religion, and become once more the sceptical, mocking
people which he was in ancient days.

The Greek has been reproached with want of courage ;
this is, as it seems to us, a wholly unjust accusation. In
their war of independence, the Hellenes gave proof of true
heroism. Many a time they have revolted against the
Turks, never caring for the barbarous punishment which
must inevitably follow such revolt. How many Greeks,
too, have sacrificed their lives in their devotion to the
national cause 1 It should be noted, too, tl^at until lately
a large majority of Hellenes followed the noble profession
of brigandage, a fact which at least shows that neither
energy nor audacity are wanting to them.

True, the Greek as you have him in Pera, is noisy,
demonstrative, but more blustering than dangerous ; hot-
headed, but with a certain instinctive prudence which
often serves to calm the ardour of his blood. As to noise

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 213

and a row, he loves it ; it is in his temperament. At
Easter, his favourite pjistime is to fire otf pistols in the
streets. Not seldom the weapons used for this purpose are
old and rickety, so that accidents more or less serious
occur ; hands are blown off, and heads wounded by the
bursting of revolver barrels. Every year the nuisance
increases ; but for all that the Turkish police have never
yet succeeded in putting a stop to it. " The Turks," say
the Greeks, " would never dare to hinder us from observing
our ancient rites and customs." At midsummer, large bon-
fires are lighted in Pei-a and at Tatavla, and devotees dance
merrily above the flames. Indeed, the Greeks delight in
dancing and in dance music. On every fete-day (that is to
say for three-fourths of the year) you may see them sitting
at little tables in some tavern, drinking mastic, or heady,
sweet wine from the Archipelago, munching meanwhile
their nieze, which consists of an anchovy and a tiny piece of
bread, slices of pickled cucumber, caviare, dried fish, or
olives. If an organ-gi-inder or a stray violinist passes, he
is at once summoned to play his liveliest stave ; the com-
pany form a semi-circle, each holding the other's shoulder,
and they begin their dance, a sort of quadrille-figure, with
wriifsrlinc movements ad libitum. One man leads the rest,
waving his handkerchief with aU the grace of a bayadere,
and executing steps that it would puzzle an acrobat to
copy ; and all this to the monotonous tunes ground out of
latUernas or barrel-organs, which in turn play Turkish,
Roumanian or Viennese dances.

Unlike tlie Turks, the Greeks have a feeling for harmony
and for rhythm. Many of their charming national songs

214 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

they sing in chorus with a great deal of taste. Among the
most popular of these we may cite —

Auo crooXax/a ^^affrs; Asv [x.i /MiXii; K<si:p ri<tai (fav to yiagouf/ii.

The fairest side of the Greek's character is certainly his
ardent patriotism. Hear Jiim speak of his native country ;
his whole face lights up ; his eyes sparkle ; and it is plain
that for country's sake he is capable of the utmost devotion.
In 1886, many young fellows left Constantinople, gave up
their appointments and bade farewell to their family in
order to go to Athens, enter the army and fight for their
country's freedom. This love for fatherland the Greek
takes with him everywhere. When he has amassed a
fortune in a foreign land, his first thought is for the mother
country. He sends thither large sums for building schools
and hospitals, for maintaining museums and for the z-estor-
ation of ancient buildings. He comes to the aid of indigent
students and struggling men of letters. Wealthy Greeks will
give as much as from two to five hundred thousand francs
towards the endowment of a school ; and often such legacies
amount to millions. It was thus that the magnificent
Zappion College in Pera was built — a real palace which
has been set apart for the education of girls, a grandiose
building with a large staff of mistresses and professors, in
fact with nothing wanting to make it an establishment of
the very first class. At Constantinople the Greeks have
the ^cole Pallas, the Lycee Hellenique, the vast J^cole du
Phanar and others. In European Turkey and in Asia
Minor there are 1069 elementary schools and 1247 primary
schools, all founded by Greeks, while in important centres,
colleges of a higher sort exist. Those who would make a

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 215

special study of this question, ought to read M. Chassiotis'
excellent volume, ' L' Instruction Publique en Grece.' One
cannot too greatly praise such munificent acts on the part
of wealthy Greeks. The merchant, the artisan and the
banker after their daily work find leisure in which to dis-
cuss educational schemes, to visit establishments, attend
examinations and distribute prizes. It was Greece that in
1834 made education obligatory throughout the kingdom,
thus, in the very year of her birth, setting an example to
Europe.

From such remarks, it will be seen how Greece, with her
limited budget, heavy debts, and ill-regulated finance, has
yet contrived in so short a time to found universities,
schools, libraries, and museums. The Greek delights to
enrich and beautify his fatherland, to supply it with the
material and intellectual resources necessary to its advance-
ment. He loves nothing more than to "ive it somewhat of
its old splendour. Ought not such ardent patriotism as
this to win the Greeks pardon for many things 1

A convincing proof of the great vitality of this people is
its power of assimilation. Every foreigner settling in a
Greek town soon becomes Greek himself ; he adopts the
language, the mien, even the physiognomy of the Greeks.
Statistics prove that Bulgars who emigrate to the Greek
towns of Asia Minor soon lose their original type and are
merged in that of the Greeks. This is more remarkable
among Europeans. who settle in the East. All the children
speak Greek, seemingly without having ever learned it ;
and those of the third generation have the features, the
look, the gesture, the tone of voice of the Greeks. To this
force of absorption, add the great fecundity of marriages

2l6 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

and it will be readily seen that the growth of the nation
must be very rapid. A day will come when Greece will
play a part diprimo cartello in the settlement of the Eastern
question.

We cannot quit the Greeks of Constantinople without a
word or two as to the fair sex. This omission would be all
the more unpardonable, as the Greek ladies of Pera and
Galata are veritable beauties. Were we the shepherd
Paris, we would give them each and every apple at our
disposal. In Pera one meets superb heads, proudly set
upon bodies that might serve as models for the most perfect
statue. If the Armenian be now and again as beautiful,
tlie Greek to our mind surpasses her in expression, in the
charm of her glance and of her smile. Like all Levantines,
the Greek lady (at least the Greek lady of Pera) is a great
coquette ; and she is so fond of finery, smart clothes and
jewels, that she would sacrifice far higher pleasures to
possess them. To get herself pretty toilettes, she would
willingly let her family submit to certain sacrifices, and
would deprive them of home comforts if her new bonnet or
her new dress were at stake.

She adores showy, staring gowns that have a super-
abundance of trimming, huge bonnets, and dazzling parasols.
Seeing her go past with that air of proud conviction, one
can easily guess what supreme importance she attaches to
all her frippery. She tries to terrify all humble souls into
admiration. "It is not she but her toilette that takes the
air." Yet she never doubts but that her own personal
beauty is worth far more than all its elaborate setting.
To such pretentiousness, then, to these constant efforts to
elicit admiration, some of the dulness which reigns in the

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 21 7

Pera salons is due ; it is the heavy allied to the frivolous.
The European, above all the Frenchman, is weary at
watching this perpetual procession of demi-goddesses ; and
he vaguely regrets the absence of some simpler nymph clad
in plain garments, who trips it with light unaffected step.

To call the Greek woman a coquette, is to call her vain ;
and in truth she possesses a good dose of vanity — even the
humblest. A Greek servant would never deign to carry a
parcel. Rather would she lose the best of places with a
kind master and good wages than lower herself to such an
indignity. We recollect the unfortunate experience of a
French lady who soon after her arrival in Pera went out
with her maid to buy a cabbage. Until that moment all
had gone well ; but when it came to carrying the cabbage,
the servant threw up her arms in horror, declaring that
she was no common street-porter to carry parcels ! The
lady unused to such Oriental touchiness, insisted, where-
upon the fair Hellene ran off as fast as possible, leaving
the unlucky vegetable in the arms of her mistress, who
never again saw the fugitive.

As we are on the subject of Greek servants, let us here
say that their reputation for honesty is none of the higiiest.
Not only are they content with perquisites ; they also take
a fancy to articles of dress — a handkerchief, a fan, a shawl.
Some even make themselves beautiful with their mistress's
jewels. O feminine coquetry ! what crimes are not com-
mitted in thy name ! The Greek maid servant is garrulous
too — far more garrulous than any daughter of Eve is
^allowed to be. This may come from the language ; soft,
iuent, harmonious as it is, it tempts one to be voluble. If
you would have an idea of what the human mouth can
achieve, listen to two Greek women telling each other an

2i8 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

interesting anecdote ; yet may Heaven save you from
watching a brace of beldames wrangle ; such a tempest of
harsh sounds was never heard !

In order to get a just idea of the diapason of these
yelling puppets one should walk any evening through the
Greek quarters in Smyrna, where one may see all the
women outside their house doors, cackling ceaselessly at
each other across the street ; magical sounds these to
charm a poet's ear at the dreamy twilight hour ! Un-
willing that our chapter should have so harsh and dis-
cordant a final note, let us admire the great tenderness
which G reek mothers show towards their children ; let us
praise them, too, for their patriotism. In this, they are
no whit behind their husbands. Education will doubtless
tend to remedy their defects, which for the most part are
superficial ones.

It is from the Greeks, and notably in Pera, that the demi-
monde draws its recruits. So developed in that city is the
commercial instinct, that one easily comes to regard love as
a stepping-stone to lucre. Yet if the morals of Greek shop
girls in Constantinople leave something to be desired, tra-
vellers are unanimous in praising the chastity of the popula-
tions of the Morea, Attica and Thessaly. And yet many of
the inhabitants of these districts are only ex-brigands, that
from the time of their possessing a national Government,
have settled down into being honest fathers of families. Thus
the trade of brigandage has been less harmful for the nation
than the corrupting life of Constantinople. It is these re-
doubtable bandits who have preserved for Greece her
traditional honesty and energy, qualities needed for the re-
generation of her sons who dwell on Turkish soil, depraved
as they are by the corrupt pernicious atmosphere of Pera !

CHAPTER XIII.

THE JEWS IN TURKEY. RE-EMIGRATIOX TO PALESTINE.

SHADY TRICKS PLAYED UPON FOREIGNERS. JEWS WITH

SEAL AND SHAM NOSES.

The Jews of the East in nowise resemble those Israelitish
bankers, who, with their millions, dazzle the world of
London, Paris, and Vienna. An axiom such as this needs
no demonstration. They differ greatly even from the
middle-class European Jews who make their living by
usury on a modest scale. Nor have they anything in
common with the handsome Hebrews of Algeria, notable
for their stalwart form, resolute bearing, and noble mien.

The Turkish Jew has something slovenly, greasy, ill-
smelling, and unbuttoned about him. Persecuted, trodden
down as he has been for centuries, he has a servile, cringing,
timid manner. While his co-religionists in the West have
grown rich and respectable, he has remained in his poverty,
a poverty that is only equalled by his ignorance. Such is
the Jew of Constantinople ; his appearance is only a trifle
less filthy than that of the Jerusalem Jew. This last is a

220 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

sight, with his greasy pelisse and fur cap or soft felt hat,
the legendary hat which seems to have reached the East
by rolling along through all the drain-pipes of Europe.
What gives this modern Hebrew such a comic look are
two long tags of hair which droop like limp curlpapers on
either side of his face. With young plurap-cheeked Jews,
these grotesque curls have the colour of barley-sugar, while
they hang round the lantern jaws of their seniors like steel
corkscrews, framing the huge nose and swart eyebrows
that resemble those of some lugubrious punchinello.

If it be difficult to give an idea of the dirtiness of a
Jerusalem Jew, it is quite impossible to describe the
squalor of his dwelling-place — the very quintessence of
filth and fetor. The narrow winding streets reek with
offal and ordure of all kinds, exhaling noisome pestilential
odours. Not even do the dogs, those public scavengers,
venture to come into such streets ; they are too filthy even
for them. In some places, piles of muck stand which
assuredly date from the time of that good man Job.

But let us leave Jerusalem where we found it and go
back to Constantinople. The Jews are divided into two
sects, the Caraites and the Talmudists, two communities
that are sharply and effectually separated, first by their
diversity of beliefs and then by the Golden Horn, which
happily has placed half a kilometer of deep water betwixt
tliem. We say " happily," because these two sects cannot
abide each other ; indeed, one would eat the other up, if it
could, which proves anyway that they have an excellent
appetite and a stomach not easily troubled by trifles.

There are two colonies of Jews ; those from Spain, who
were driven thence by the Inquisition ; and those imported

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 221

from Eastern Europe, the Achkinazira. The former speak
a corrupt sort of Spanish, and the latter, bad German dis-
figured by an insufferable accent. The Spanish Jew colony
is at Hasskeui, while the others live at Balata, on the out-
skirts of Stamboul.

The Constantinople Jew may be termed a jack-of-all-
trades, except perhaps of those which need a certain
expenditure of physical strength. Above all, he is a pedlar
and colporteur. In all the towns of Turkey you will meet
him with his basket, or flat, glass-lidded box slung round
his neck. If you care to Avait and watch them file past,
you will see itinerant vendors of every kind of commodity,
from fez to slippers, from pots to pencils. Some carry
about Persian carpets, brass plates and embroidered shawls,
the poorer sort sell old iron and buy empty boxes, while
those who are sly and know their market, carry packets of
obscene photographs for sale to such as can be tickled by
such mental aphrodisiacs.

Many Jews play the housekeeper ; and such patterns of
docility are they, that their incorrigible dirtiness is ex-
cused. As bootblacks they also shine, and above all, as
disciples of Pandarus. It is they who procure the in-
genuous foreigner fair Circassians that have been "reserved"
for some Pasha's harem ; it is they who discover some
Orient pearl imbedded in a German oyster-shell. It is
they who for a few coins of gold would reveal to the in-
quisitive even a corner of Mahomed's paradise.

Under a pretext of conducting the foreigner to beauteous
houris, most difficult of access, he is led about for an hour
through a maze of narrow, winding streets, and finally
brought by dark by-ways to a mysterious abode into which

2 22 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

he is introduced with all sorts of startling precautions.
The house, needless to say, is only a common brothel. And
the unfortunate tourist has to pay a hundred or two
hundred francs for the same sort of pleasure which only
costs the Perote five or ten shillings according to the tariff.

Indeed, in a case like this, imagination is all. The dirty,
dismal room, with its vulgar furniture and petroleum lamp,
becomes for the imaginative tourist the boudoir of an
Eastern harem. In the rapacious hag who manages this
frowsy establishment, he sees a wily duenna whom he must
corrupt with gold, and the damsel who unbares her charms
to his sight and touch, becomes for him a love-tortured
odalisque struggling with all virgin modesty to conquer her
reluctance. Be it noted that this sham virgin is always
either a Greek or an Armenian girl who wraps a few yards
of muslin round her body, from which she has not even
removed the hair, as Turkish women always do. The
impressionable foreigner, however, ignores this detail, and
firmly believes that he clasps in his arms a shrinking,
palpitating houri of the truest type. Perhaps, though, he
has a moment of distrust and of suspicions when the
rapacious hag, as she shows him out, says, " Sir, don't forget
auntie ! "

Not long ago, a Hungarian came to stay at one of the first
hotels of Constantinople. Excellent as they are in many
points, it is not exactly on tlie side of modesty that Hungari-
ans err. They readily recognise themselves as the first nation
in Europe and have profound belief in their extraordinary
success with women. So our hero was not a whit surprised
at being told by one of the Hebrew guides who haunt such
hotels, that his curled moustachios had brought grievous

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 223

trouble to the heart of a fair Turkish lady of high degree.
She solicited a rendezvous. At midnight he must go forth
to it, armed to the teeth. Ah ! what a romantic adventure
was this — fit for the columns of a penny newspaper ! Rain
fell in torrents ; the carriage creaked and jolted along
down perilous defiles ; it passed through obscure quarters
peopled by desperadoes and cut-throats ! (Hasskeui, the
Jews' quarter, as it was afterwards known). About one
o'clock in the morning the intrepid young Don Juan was
with great secrecy brought into a lonely house. An old
woman rushed to meet the newcomers and began a violent
conversation with the guide, her words gaining emphasis by
the gestures of terror with which they were accompanied.
The dragoman thereupon informed his victim that the
Pasha (it could only have been a Pasha) had not gone out as
usual that evening ; consequently one must wait until he
fell asleep before the fair houri could escape.

The bold Hungarian deceiver was hidden behind a
curtain while fearful fragments of phrases were whispered
in his ear, such as : " Fierce Eunuch ; " " The Bosphorus
is deep ; " "A sack filled with vipers." Then he was left
alone in a dark room to meditate upon the dangers incur-
red by such Oriental conquests. Having remained in this
heroico-comical situation for upwards of an hour, a light
appeared, and the fair hanoum entered timidly, all
trembling in her gauze drapery which floated round her
like a cloud. Needless to say that our hero found a way
to dispel the cloud, so winning the reward of all his sacri-
fices. Let us hope that the reward was worth them all ;
though in all likelihood young Jupiter of the Danube found
his Danae of the Bosphorus all too prone to put a

2 24 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

literal interpretation upon the legend of the shower of
gold.

A few days later he was astonished to see walking past
his hotel door a young person conscientiously rouged and
powdered, smirking and simpering in a European costume
of tlie loudest type. He could not believe his eyes ; yet
they had not deceived him, it was no other than the
mysterious odalisque, the Eastern enchantress. How had
she fled from the harem 1 Why this disguise ? As she
went by, she shot a glance from her dark eyes at the hotel,
while a smile played round her vermillion lips. Our hero
was at a loss what to think, when he noticed that the
glance and the smile were directed, not at him, but at the
waiter of the hotel.

"Do you know that person 1" he asked of the waiter,
while vainly trying to check his heart-throbs.

" Oh ! yes, I know her well enough, and "others that are
like her too. She is an Armenian girl, and lives with
Madame Rosa. Don't you trust her, sir ; the guides often
make her play the Turkish woman to take in foreigners ;
but, if you care about it, I can get her for you for a
medjidie."

O poetry of Oriental love ! Thou, likewise, are naught
but an illusion : like poetry, like love, like the East !

As stage managers of such little comedies as these, the
Jew excels ; we might call him the stage manager of
International Mystery Plays. He will sell anything and
everything, if he can only find somebody to buy ; he is
completely blind to the dishonourable nature of certain
transactions. If asked to execute a commission of the
most immoral sort, he willingly accepts, provided the price

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 225

of his services be duly fixed. In his eyes, any act is a fair
and honest one, if only the payment for it be fair and
honest too.

A friend told me that during the firet weeks of his stay
in Pera he was nightly pestered by gangs of Jews who
importuned him with their indecent proposals. "Would
the Baron like to be introduced to a Circassian, a Greek or
an Armenian girl?" For the Jew, every foreigner is a
Baron ; it is a title exquisitely flattering to the dignity of
commercial travellers and wholesale shopkeepers, and when
a man is flattered, he is always more generous ; nohlease
oblige. Well, this friend, from sheer curiosity, if not from
the devil within him, let one of these Jews take him to a
Turkish beauty who, unfortunately for her, knew no other
Oriental language but Italian. But there was no possi-
bility of retreat ; the Rubicon had been crossed. When it
came to paying the price of the entertainment, our friend
let a ten paras piece (equivalent to one half-penny) fall on
the floor. Next day at dawn, he found the Jew standing
at the door of his hotel with the missing coin in his hand.

"It was not worth while troubling about," said the
master to his virtuous servant.

" Nay, but the Baron does not know me," answered the
latter, drawing himself up to his full height. "I never
keep money except that which I have honestly earned."

He said this in all sincerity, for the profession of pander
has nothing low or degrading about it for Jews. A father
destines his son at quite an early age for this lucrative
trade. So, at night one may see the big sharks walking
with the little sharks, the former being vastly proud of the
prowess of their ofi'spring.

226 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Jewesses have quite as much talent for this sort of busi-
ness as their sires. In waters where the shark swims, the
naiads, too, disport themselves. In the East, it is a
recognised fact that no young and lovely Jewess ever resists
a serenade, to the ohhligato accompaniment of louis cCor. If
her virtue be dear to her, dearer yet shall she prove for her
seducers.

Despite his humble, obsequious air, despite the elastic
nature of his conscience, the Jew at heart keeps all the
rigour of his religious beliefs, and shows a stubborn attach-
ment to the traditions of his race. It is rare for a Jew to
become a convert ; indeed, a Hebrew is quite as great a
fanatic as a Mussulman. But his zeal is stifled, gagged by
fear ; if he hates the Christian much, he dreads him yet
more. His intolerance is limited to breaking crosses
where none can see him, to throwing filth at night time
outside the doors of churches, or to parodying Catholic
ceremonies in his own home.

Such pitiable acts of mimicry and spite should not cause
surprise, remembering, as one must, what awful, atrocious
persecutions the Jews had to suffer for centuries. Outlaws,
beggars, and treated like the worst of criminals, tliey had
hardly the right to live and possess a family or a home. It
was the grand inquisitors and their most Christian majesties
of Europe who trampled on the Jewish race and made it
vile. And to-day in many countries such odious persecution
exists. There are towns where Jews are pursued with
sticks and stones, and where they would be hung if the
authorities did not interfere. In Roumania, the people
demand the expulsion of the Jews ; at Pesth we ourselves
saw the populace assail them with stones ; and in Russia,

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 227

the ignorant peasantry are for burning them all at the
stake. We Frenchmen can hardly realize such abominable
cruelty ; and it is a great honour for our nation to have set
Jews upon the same footing as that of other citizens.
What a difference, too, between the Paris Jews and those
of other cities or countries ! So used are we to exercise
religious tolerance that we make no difference between a
Jew, a Catholic or a Calvinist. The title of Frenchman
supersedes all others ; and we no more bear a grudge
against a man because he is an Israelite than because
he has red hair, or no hair at all. Why should we be put
out at all by such simple qualificatory adjectives 1

On the contrary, in certain countries, the Jews are in
such disfavour, and so implacably harrassed, that they
occasionally pretend to be of another religion. I have
known Germans, Viennese, Servs, who for eight or ten
years acted a diurnal comedy so as not to confess themselves
to be sons of Moses. In Hungai-y the hostility to Hebrews
is so great, that it has had a political result which was
quite unexpected. Can it be believed that, in this
country which boasts, not without a reason, of its liberal
ideas, the Chamber of Lords should have refused to estab-
lish the validity of civil marriage ! It fears in this way to
allow wealthy Isi-aelites to wed Christian maidens of good
family. And at the present time, marriages in Hungary
are as much the monopoly of the clergy as they were in the
eighteenth century. In face, then, of such persistent and
implacable hostility, the Jews have thought it politic to
abandon their distinctive surnames. So farewell to such
names as Levj^, Aaron, Goldstein, Kaufmann, Solomon,
etc. They now adopt Hungarian surnames of the most

2 28 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

irreproachable sort, with a true Christian ring about them.
Some have even made modifications in their national
character. They pretend to be openhanded and generous,
lend money without interest, give princely pourhoires, and
"lash out their silver penny" like any lord. But such
prodigality as this is all a shaui, a take-in ; scratch but
• these Moecenas of stucco and you will find the Hebrew
with his shameless greed. Do what he may, the Jew will
ever be betrayed by two things : the nose and the eye ; the
nose with its hooked shape like the beak of a bird of prey,
and the eye with its oblique look, a sort of double i*ay, a
ray which looks and a ray which seems to look. Since the
recent persecutions which have taken place in Russia,
Austria, Hungary, Germany and Roumania, many Jews
have emigrated, seeking an asylum of refuge in the cradle
of their race, at Palestine, Jerusalem, JaflTa and elsewhere.

No one can deny to the Jew his intelligence and finesse ;
he has veritable genius for trade, above all, for trade in
precious metals. He is gentle, obsequious, and courteous
towards the fair sex. Pride of family is in him strongly
developed ; but his most praiseworthy trait is his devotion
to his co-religionists. Despite his cupidity, he is charitable
and readily loosens his purse-strings when the poor and
infirm of his race need succour. He will make great
sacrifices, too, if schools or benevolent establishments have
to be maintained. The rich thus constantly aid the poor,
and thus put into practice the most Utopian teachings of
the socialists.

The Jewish community of Constantinople, despite its
feeble resources, is the best administered and the best
regulated of all the " nations " which dwell in this vast

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 229

city. The Hebrew colony has the best schools and the
most active and energetic philanthropic associations.

Such results are in a great measure due to the Alliance
Israelite Universelle, an admirable institution, which not
only carries out its charitable programme, but which like-
wise undertakes the more difficult task of the regeneration
of the race. In the entire Levant, in Egypt, in Algeria,
and Morocco, the Alliance has rendered signal service. At
Constantinople it has started French and German schools,
the teachers in these being earnest, hard-working enthu-
siasts. Each establishment is kept up by the wealthiest
members of the Jewish colony, who subscribe handsome
sums for their maintenance. At Jaffa, the Alliance has
founded a practical school of agriculture, which to emigrant
Jews will prove a most valuable institution. For, if the
Hebrew rarely tills the earth, that is not to say that he is
incapable of turning agriculturist. The truth is, that for
many centuries he has never been suffered to possess in
safety the lands that were his. Shut out, too, from trade
corporations, he has mainly devoted liimself to usury, to
traffic with money. But recent examples permit one to
affirm that the latter-day Hebrews, descendants of the old
shepherds of Judah, will know well how to turn to account
this fair land of Canaan, which Turkish negligence has
suffered to lie fallow. The olive, vine, fig, nut, and banana
all flourish in Palestine ; so, too, does the sugar cane, while
the orange trees rival those of Cyprus and Algiers.

We have just spoken of a nation that is dispersed ; and
to these remarks let us add a few words concerning another
wandering race well-known in the East, the gipsies or
Tchinganes, as the Turks call them. Tliey are mostly of

230 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

low stature but well-formed, and their attitudes at times
are of surprising grace. They have intelligent faces, full
of spirit and vivacity, and the women in their youth may
claim to be called pretty. But both sexes live in a state
of extreme dirtiness ; their cottages are no more than filthy
huts built with broken planks, and patched up with rags or
paper. Here men and animals live in the most extra-
ordinarily promiscuous fashion. The inner circle of the
walls of Stamboul is decorated by rows of such squalid
hovels, which makes one think how exquisitely apt is the
Eastern motto that meets the eye on every wall and at
every turn — Commit no nuisance, etc. . . .

The gipsies are, above all things, horsemongers, letting
out horses for hire in the public streets. Everywhere you
may see them leading their proudly caparisoned chargers,
and touting for clients in the most noisy and persistent
fashion. The horses are good beasts, gentle and sure-
footed as a rule ; but perpetual riding ruins them, and they
are but the wrecks of what were once serviceable mounts.
They are always saddled and bridled, by night as by day,
and occasionally they sleep standing at a street corner.
Twice daily they are fed on a few handfuls of chopped
straw, and sometimes they get a little barley. Hay is a
luxury unknown to them. One should not forget that at
Constantinople carriages can only pass through a few of
the main streets, so that one is often obliged to have
recourse to these poor, jaded quadrupeds. The Tchinganes
treat their beasts kindly, and delight to dress them up with
ornaments of glass or amulets stuck on their harness.

The women sell lavender and herbs ; they tell fortunes ;
sing ; clap their hands, and beat the tambourine. Some of

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 23'

them dance in the manner of Egyptian dancing girls, and
their most sprightly sign of satisfaction at your liberality,
is to stick the piastres you give them on to their foreheads
or their throats with spittle. They ask nothing better
than to sell their charms for cash ; and at a most moderate
rate, too. I remember hearing a pretty gipsy girl tell an
old Turk, who was pestering her on the Karakeuy Bridge,
" I am game ; only, if you go with me, as I am pretty,
you'll have to give me a hundred pai-as (about eightpence).
The line rose to my lips : Ces Jilles de Bolieme ont le coeur
g^erettx ! Generous, indeed ; for what will they not give
you for eightpence 1

The race shows no sign of possessing religious beliefs.
Each tribe recognises the authority of a chief whose power
appears to be absolute. Children get no education what-
ever, but learn to beg as soon as they can walk ; when they
grow older, they add yet other accomplishments, such as
the adroit theft of fruit from orchards or of pullets from
farm -yards. Take them all in all, they are maraudere,
unpleasant, disagreeable if you will, but not dangerous
criminals. Then, in a picture, how effective they are !

CHAPTER XIV.

THE LEVANTINES ; OR THE WEST IN THE EAST. — THE BOARDS OP
GREEN CLOTH IN PERA. STUCCO FINANCE AND PASTE-
BOARD ARISTOCRACY.

Hitherto we have spoken of the purely Eastern elements
of the Constantinople population. We novv pass on to deal
with imported races, with nationalities not of pure metal
but that contain alloy. These are the European colonies,
formerly classed under the generic name of Franks ; hence
the appellation "Prankish quarter," "Frankish time,"
" Frankish style," etc.

Besides the two main elements, Oriental and European,
there is a third element, the Levantine. One is not yet
agreed as to the exact application of the name. We are,
however, of opinion that the term Levantine should be
given to everyone born of a European family that is resi-
dent and definitely settled in the East.

The Levantine is proud of his European descent, and
would not for the world have you confound him with the
Greeks and Armenians, whom he calls "natives." As re-
gards himself, it would be rather difficult to define his

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 233

origin. Many claim a sort of approximate descent from
old Italian, French, Hungarian and Slav families. As we
have already said, they all more or less do things as the
Greeks do ; and Greek is the language that they speak at
home among themselves. But in public they talk French,
that being the language of the best society.

The inhabitants of Pera, Perotes as they are called, are,
generally speaking, Levantines. The rest of the population
consists of Greeks, Armenians, and Europeans who are not
yet Orientalised. The Levantine it is who gives the tone
to the others and who controls the manners of this com-
posite troupe.

He has the qualities and the defects of the different
nations amid whom he lives ; nor in many respects does he
differ from the inhabitants of a small provincial town. He
poses, is affected and very vain ; his mind is small and his
judgment, narrow ; he treats trifles as if they were matters
of importance, and is wholly indifferent to things of the
utmost beauty. Thus Pera is like a little provincial town,
with all its prejudice, ignorance, inquisitiveness and
.spite.

Though there are perhaps fifty or sixty thousand inhabi-
tants in Pera and its suburbs, " Perote society," so called,
only counts some thousand or twelve hundred persons.
This limited body takes upon itself to be a faithful reflex of
European manners and customs as they exist on the banks
of the Bosphorus. The Levantine is full of pretensions,
and gives himself tremendous airs. Disdaining the servility
of the Greek or the Armenian, he affects on the other hand
an air of boorish presumption which he believes to be
dignity. For this reason he is little beloved by the

234 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

" natives," while to bonS,-fide Europeans he is simply in-
sufferable.

To keep up this part of a superior being, and in order to
play it satisfactorily, he has to have recourse to false swagger,
and to trying to impress others with a sense of his quality.
In a land like this, where all is deception and counterfeit,
the great art of dust-throwing must never be neglected.
So he flings dust audaciously in the eyes of all, and invents
stories that might even astonish a horse-marine. The high
opinion he has of his own importance as a European makes
him fashion's slave. If caught doing or wearing something
not quite chic, he would be covered with confusion. And
so the Pera dandy is a third-rate imitation of the Paris
dandy ; — just as ridiculous, though not nearly so well-
dressed. Tailors who know their clients' weakness, make
them pay tremendous prices for their smart clothes, which
are rarely well-cut and usually of shoddy. All the same,
the prices charged are those of the best Paris or London
tailor. If they had a turn for French verse-making, they
could rhyme Pera with opera, never omitting the most
important rhyme of all : patera.

In this petty Oriental city, just as in the meanest of
provincial towns, folk spend their time in criticising each
other and in saying all sorts of spiteful things. Towards
anyone who essays to get beyond the usual dead level, no
pity is shown, but there is rejoicing over one sinner that
slips lower in the mud, as his fall sets the mediocrity of the
others in relief, and seems to raise them somewhat in their
own esteem. Every man would deem his day lost, unless
ere night came he had been able to backbite somebody ;
and a Perote lady's main occupation consists in collecting.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 235

sorting, and repeating the spiteful speeches of her friends.
Most of this drawing-roona twaddle is very poor stuff ; void
of point or of wit ; the chatter of raidwives or of washer-
women ; just as vulgar and just as dull. That comes from
the astounding poverty of ideas, which is the natural result
of the Levantine's profound ignorance. In his youth, he
may have had an entirely superficial education, an education
soon cut short, and from which he got very little profit.
His stock-in-trade consists mainly of a smattering of modern
languages at which he is fluent enough, though he has
never read any standard authors, either French Italian or
German. And his talk has the ring of a manual of con-
versation about it, — a sort of OUendorflian grace :

" Have you the fine hat of your worthy brother?"

" No ; but I have seen the pretty hammer of the aged
carpenter."

The Levantine takes little or no interest in reading ;
high-toned local journals and reviews do not exist ; and at
soirees or parties one rarely or never meets a distinguished
artist, a man of learning or of letters. The theatre is still
in a rudimentary state. Occasionally Italian or French
companies come to Pera to play in opera or in opera-boufle.
They never attempt high comedy — that section of dramatic
art which most develops the mental faculties and refines
the taste.

This intellectual j)overty of the Perote causes him to care
little about education or its uses ; a professor, in his eyes,
is a tradesman like anybody else ; more exacting maybe,
than the baker ; less dear, though, than the tailor. If he
wants to praise exuberantly, he will never say : " He is a
man of great talent," but exclaim with enthusiasm, " I have

236 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

seen him spend as much as ten pounds in one day ! " To
all finer pleasures of the mind he is callous, as well as to
any in which he can have no part. I would strongly advise
no lecturer to try his fortune in such a place as Pera. Even
the greatest artists, a Rubinstein or a Sarasate would find
it hard to give a concert and make it pay, unless they were
backed up by their respective embassies, when Her Excel-
lency Madame this or that would send round tickets for the
entertainment, and everybody would fear to affront her by
refusing to buy them.

In Pera, the man of title is an article highly appreciated,
even though he have neither hair nor teeth. Levantines
doat upon crests and coats of arms. This is the place to
send a complete stock of seedy baronets and ^third-rate
lords ; on the heights above the Golden Horn they would
be eagerly welcomed by smiling lips and radiant eyes.
"Viscount Slopperton has just been here." "We went
out driving with the Marchioness of Muddlepate ! " " Lord
Lucifer Linnethead is coming to dinner ! " What music
resides in phrases such as these ! How they act like a balm ;
delicious words that are a joy to utter ! Besides their
success socially, these young noblemen stand a good chance
of wedding some wealthy Levantine damsel, who is willing
to regild their tarnished coat of arms with some of the
gold supplied by her dear, vulgar, wealthy papa.

In the East, the romance of every day that yet awaits
the novelist is the romance that tells how the father of the
family came to Turkey without shoes to his feet and with
scarcely a rag to his back. He started life there by carry-
ing on all sorts of petty trades until he could manage to
traflSc in filthy lucre also ; in fact, until he could turn

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 237

usurer. At this trade he made a pretty fortune. The
dream of his eldest daughter is to be a countess, and, if
possible, a marchioness. Money she has got ; it is not
that which tempts her ; it is a name, a title. Always
remember that she has no ancestors. She has a father, it
is true, but a father cannot count as an ancestor ; at the
most he is the beginner of a pedigree.

Often alas ! in society like this, at once lax and in-
tolerant, sham noblemen, stucco counts, and aluminium
dukes get a place. But what does that matter? Who
cares to dispute their right to the titles they bear, or to
examine their patents of nobility 1

" Come to my arms, my noble son-in-law ! "

What comes, then, from such marriages, where shady
finance weds bric-a-brac nobility ? The bridegroom lets his
wife cover herself from top to toe with coats of arms, and
put huge coronets on all the plates and chairs, while he is
delighted at being able to lead his old life of spendthrift
and gambler. To do things on a grand scale is rather
difficult in Pera, though all there is in keeping with the
rest. No race courses ; no ballet girls of the Grand Opera,
no Cafe de la Paix ; no Restaurant des Ambassadeurs :
nothing of that sort ; but there are always the girls who
sing at music-halls to be debauched, or orgies to be held in
any cheap brothel. If pleasure of this kind be somewhat
vulgar, there is the board of green cloth, and by gambling
one may go to the devil just as fast as ever one likes.

Pera, be it known, is filled with gambling hells. In the
Gi-and' Rue, the centre street of the whole town, there are
some twenty or thirty roulette tables. Sometimes you find
three or four in a row. The proprietors are wary enough

238 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

and know how to keep their little business dark. The
ground-floors of such houses are occupied by shops of the
most respectable sort ; the rooms above are let to worthy
lodgei-s ; but there is one little apartment somewhere at
the back which is lived in by Mr X or by Madame Z.
Most evenings, he or she entertains a few friends ; and
anyone is a friend, if he have but a few pounds in his
pocket and know the password. In such mysterious
sanctuaries, worshippers assemble to adore the goddess
Roulette, whose high priests are Baccarat and Poker. No
fear of the police, for the domicile of Europeans is sacred
and inviolable.

Moreover, the Turkish authorities would never try to
put down the private hells, since they tolerate the public
ones. Go into any music-hall, you will see five or six
gloomy-looking individuals drinking mastic or beer, and
listening to the lugubrious wailing of some lugubrious lady,
styled in the bills " Marquise de P and whose repu-
tation is as threadbare as her voice. How can such
establishments pay, you ask, for the executants are more
numerous than the — executed 1 Evidently this is a problem
not to be solved at first sight. But it is a very simple pro-
blem. If you glance round the hall you will discover a
little door against which in silhouette is seen a man, who
looks the very type of a spy. Go boldly through it and
you will join a crowd of people standing round a roulette-
table. People of all classes and all nationalities are there;
and with haggard faces and bloodshot eyes they stop in this
stifling, tobacco-poisoned atmosphere till dawn, when they
drink a plevna or two, just to settle their nerves before
going to bed. A. plevna is a mixture of vermouth, rum, and

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 239

lemon juice ; in default of this delightful drink, they swallow
the yolk of an egg in a glassful of cura^oa. It is the
roulette that pays for the violinists and all their twingle-
twangle in the outer or concert room. Music is the pre-
text, while gambling is the reason, for such temples of sound.
The orchestra is a bore sometimes, and the big drum often
shakes the nerves of some more sensitive gambler. If one
could but have music-halls without any music, how delight-
ful that v.'ould be !

One beerseller, both intelligent and thrifty, was content
to place an old cracked piano in his tavern ; and he engaged
a man for modest wage to thump upon it all night without
ceasing. He thereupon styled himself hnpresario, and
wrote over the door of his beer-shop " Concert Lyrique."
Then he added a roulette-table ; and the trick was done.
An ingenious way, this, of paying for the hire of his piano,
was it not 1

The police respects all these pickpockets, and the Govern-
ment alone in order to show its solicitude and regard for its
Ottoman subjects forbids all wearers of the fez to enter
these temples of vice. Nevertheless this protective measure
is no more respected than others of its kind. Turks come
in to listen to the music, thrust their fez into their pocket
and walk bareheaded into the gambling-room. But they
must above all things beware of a big moustachioed long-
shanked fellow, dressed sometimes like a gendarme and
sometimes like a civilian or a cavalry-sergeant. He is put
there to spy upon such naughty Turkish officials as wander
from the paths of virtue and stray into these dens of vice.
Next day he recommends them to the tender mercies of
His Highness the Grand Vizier.

240 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Besides these hells, public and private, there are clubs,
both respectable and expensive, where the gathering of
gamers is more select, and where the play is higher. We
know of a club in Pera whose members many of them
live entirely by their luck at poker and baccarat. They
make as much as fifteen hundred and two thousand a year.
An enterprising person has used the bright idea of asking
for the Turkish Government's permission to make a Monte
Carlo of one of the Princes' Islands, which is situated at
about an hour's distance from Constantinople. The island
itself is a charming one ; the climate is salubrious ; there
are pleasant walks and drives, and it is perhaps destined
to become the Monaco of European Turkey. Many pretty
villas have already been built there, and even a few
paltry casinos. When Constantinople shall be connected
by express train with Pesth, Vienna, Berlin, and Peters-
burg, we shall see Greeks and Wallachians, Russians and
Hungarians flocking to this Eden in the sea. It would be
a clever idea to draw them thither by a gambling estab-
lishment, which should replace Spa, Homburg and Baden
when Western prudery suppresses these centres of iniquity.

The Turkish Government so far has refused to let itself
be seduced, despite the millions held out to dazzle its eyes.
The ulemas have declared gambling to be immoral, but they
have not counted upon the omnipotent influence of bak-
sheesh which will, sooner or later, one day serve to silence
the scruples of the older Mussulmans. "Let the Christians
ruin themselves if they will ! "

The Levantine who has grown rich by usury or by shady
tricks of some sort, has no very tender conscience. If he
is pitiless as regards the little absurdities of his associates,

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 24 1

he is most indulgent as I'egards their acts of — well, let us
say, of indelicacy. He has the true spirit of the financier
who will never forgive a trifling error of two francs, but
who witli gaping mouth will frankly admire a regular good
fraud to the tune of two hundred thousand francs.

A father of a family, a retired banker and a millionaire,
learns that his son has run heavily into debt. This consti-
tutes the primary cause of his displeasure. But there is
something worse still. The degenerate son, in order to
satisfy his rapacious creditors borrows money at the rate of
forty per cent. At this, the righteous father and quondam
banker feels thoroughly indignant. He sends for the
young prodigal and ends his lecture thus : " At all events,
if you're such a fool as to borrow money at the rate of forty
per cent, you might go for choice to your father instead of
filling the pockets of some harpy of a Jew ! "

One can imagine how the young Levantines, brought up
on such theories turn out. Ignorant and vain, they lead a
life of vulgar debauchery, a life in which there is neither
illusion for the senses nor gaiety for the heart, a life void
of originality as of wit ; while their notion of squandering
is to fling sovereigns out of the window in handfuls, as if to
proclaim the fact that money was no object. Levantine
families bitterly complain that the young men desert the
circles of good society, that marriages become every day
more rare, that matches once made always prove unfortu-
nate. But have they ever troubled to train their children
carefully, to give them ideas and tastes that might serve to
raise and refine them intellectually ? Far from it. They
have only dinned this axiom into their ears. " All can be
done by money ; thus all must be done to get money."
Q

242 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Again, does the young Levantine woman do anything
towards keeping her husband at home 1 Her ruling passion
is dress, to which she sacrifices all. When she walks out
she is loaded with jewels and lace. At home,, she disdains
to dress herself neatly, or even decently. She looks as
though she had just jumped out of bed. Everything
dangles and droops about her ; her touzled, unkempt hair ;
her flabby, pendulous breasts, her half fastened skirts and
slippers down at heel ; — it all suggests a weeping willow !
So she spends her day curled up on a divan which fits into
a bow-window overlooking the street. Now and again she
sips a cup of cofiee, nibbles at a bon-bon or drinks a glass
of water, smoking all the while countless cigarettes. In
reading she takes no interest whatever ; she knows nothing
about new books or new journals of fashion ; needle- work
or fancy-work fatigues her ; and the house-keeping is left
entirely to the servants. If friends come, they help her to
kill time with their empty, frivolous talk, for they can
neither converse about theatres, concerts, novels, nor
sermons ; so they have to drag on their dreary gossip
about trifles, and get up an interest in the price of toma-
toes or the size of a flounce. How to kill time ; a
Levantine's whole life is given up to solving that problem !
Such a hollow, artificial existence as this cannot fail to
blunt the mind. Life becomes a series of half-worries and
half-pleasures while, from a material point of view, it does
not even offer the compensation of a comfortable home.
To satisfy her craving for dress, the young wife denies to
her house a thousand necessaries. The furniture is either
scanty or in a most shabby state, while the table is ill-
appointed and ill-kept. If, some Sunday, you should meet

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 24$

two shopkeepers with their wives, examine their get-up ;
and you are sure to find that the husband has seedy linen
and shoddy clothes. The young Levantine wife however,
displays a profusion of rings and bracelets, while large
brilliants dangle from her ears.

Mean, vicious, selfish as he is, the Levantine is incapable
of doing aught towards reviving or regenerating the East.
He is powerless to efiect progress of any kind ; and to the
decay that surrounds him he is totally indifferent. He is
quite happy in that he has given to his neighbourhood a
coat of European whitewash ; he believes that, therewith,
he has transformed Turkey ; and he will willingly call Pera
" a miniature Paris."

CHAPTER XV.

EUROPEANS IN PERA. — "THE PENITENTIARY COLONIES."

WOES OP THE PERA LANDLORD. WHY THE EUROPEAN

CONTINGENT IS REDUCED.

Why do Europeans visit the East 1 What do they come
to do there ] Many things. Some (the more fortunate,
these) travel thither to visit this matchless land and spend
a fortnight of enchantment in mosques and bazaars, in
floating up and down the lovely Bosphorus and in studying
Asiatic types and costumes. If chance favour them, they
may even be able to penetrate into one or two of the mar-
vellous palaces which for the public ai'e always difficult of
access. Then they depart, enraptured with their stay,
declaring that the East is the most beautiful part of God's
world and that the inhabitants of Constantinople are far
too richly favoured in being able to inhabit such a paradise.
Their sole cause for regret is that they have been disgrace-
fully fleeced ; and they furthermore admit that, after two
weeks' stay, they have not yet managed to understand the
intricacies of Turkish time and Tui'kish money. These

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 245

favourites of fortune have been able to realise their day
dreams. Let us have regard for their happiness. For
them, the East is still an earthly paradise.

Other Europeans there are who came to Pera to try
their luck at a time when Turkey still had wealth and
vitality. To this class belong merchants, contractors,
teachers, professors, and petty tradesmen. Many of them
have succeeded in " making their pile " ; but the good time
has gone for doing that, now ; and they bitterly regret it.
They grumble at the stagnant state of business, at the
general decay of the country, at the villainous administra-
tion of those in office, at the dishonesty of native creditors.
In brief, they heap a thousand curses upon the East, and
upon themselves, for having had the unlucky idea of
coming thither. For them, the East is nothing short of
Purgatory.

Finally, there is a more numerous, more restless class of
Europeans. These are they who made their own country
too hot to hold them, either by theft, by fraudulent
bankruptcy, or by some flagrant outrage upon public
morals. They all came to Constantinople without a penny
in their pockets, and plunge into this cosmopolitan rabble,
to hide themselves and get their living there. For such
people as these, the East becomes Hell.

Among such strange types, one meets bigamists, triga-
niists, men of ambition who have failed, decayed sons of
decayed families, political refugees, unfrocked priests,
gentlemen too light of finger for Europe, deserters,
adventurers, and ruined merchants. Pell-mell, one en-
counters honourable men who have come to grief, and
impudent rogues. The former try to hide their misery.

246 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

the latter, their degradation. All alike are in search of
their daily beefsteak ; and nearly all, be it said, succeed in
obtaining it. For if living for the tourist be extremely
dear, for the resident it is astonishingly cheap. " With just
a few piastres, a man can pay for his wants of the day.
He can get a furnished room for ten or twelve shillings a
month, and a fairly decent dinner for ninepence.

But, be it noted, if one can live in Turkey with a little
money, that little money is hard to earn in a country where
industry and agriculture do not exist ; where there are no
public works, where commerce and banking remain concen-
trated in the hands of Armenians and Greeks. Since the
great smash, everyone cuts down his expenses, reduces the
staff of his servants or of his clerks, and hermetically seals
his purse. What is the poor devil of a European to do, see-
ing that he knows neither Greek nor Turkish 1 It needs all
his fertility of resource and his unwearying activity to pull
him along. Perhaps he sets up as a house agent or furni-
ture broker for new comers ; perhaps he will take to selling
European goods, wines, sausages or cheese ; perhaps he will
give lessons in sciences, languages or arts, of which very
likely he himself is ignorant. But above all, he will learn
how to put into practice those rules from the Grand Money
Lender's Manual. In no city has the game of " Beggar
my Neighbour " reached such a pitch of perfection. There
are people who live in Pera tliat for years have never
possessed so much as a five-franc piece on which there was
no mortgage. Wonderful is their instinct for borrowing
from Peter to pay Paul ; and they have brouglit the prin-
ciple of the divisability of credit to its highest possible
pitch.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 247

Always be on your guard if you go out into the street.
In ten minutes or so you will meet a friend more or less
known to you who overwhelms you with professions of his
friendship and attachment. Button up your pockets, for
this explosion of cordiality is aimed at your purse. Should
you seem unmoved by this gushing prelude, he will re-
double the warmth of his avowals, reducing at the same
time the amount of his demand. I once met a species of
German baron, frightfully hard up, who, after having tried
to borrow the loan of ten pounds from me, was eventually
content to accept the loan of ten ^;a?'as, or one halfpenny,
wherewith to cross the Bridge of Stamboul. Others, less
ambitious, will try, in default of getting money out of you,
to make you offer them wine. With exquisite pleasantry
they will take up the bottle in front of you and pour them-
selves out a bumper. At my table cChote, a facetious chubby-
faced Styrian used to play the game of gallantly draining
the glass of his fair neighbour !

Pera then has its Bohemia, full of recruits drawn from
the Bohemias of all the other countries. One may see
them any evening playing their game of dominoes, while the
luckless tavern-keeper gloomily tots up the sums due to him
by his faithful customers. All these needy cosmopolitans,
with a shady past and a misty future, never fail to pick
each other to pieces with mutual energy. There is no
sense of compatriotism which binds them together ; but
each wishes to adorn his brows with a lialo of purity, and
to relegate the rest to the category of reprobates. "Such
a person is a dangerous swindler." " That man there is a
bad lot; he lives with his niece!" "This fellow is a spy
in the pay of the police ! " If a discussion is started, you

248 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

see the disputants draw revolvers from their pockets ; but
the business rarely gets beyond a brawl followed by mutual
head-punchings, after which those present declare honour to
have been satisfied ; and everybody is turned out of doors.

A malicious old fogey once called the European colonies
in Pera, " the penitentiary colonies." The term was not
quite a just one, for often in this heterogeneous centre
there are more of the sinned against to be found than of the
sinning. But the miseries of daily life bring all to the
same level of selfishness and malice.

What draws all these pariahs of society to Constantinople
is the great liberty which all foreigners enjoy in Turkey.
The European's domicile is sacred ; though he be thief or
assassin, the police dare not enter his house without proper
authorisation from the consul empowered to give it. If
anyone is arrested by the police, he can at once appeal to
his ambassador to release him. There are no duties and no
taxes to pay in Turkey, neither to the treasury nor to the
municipality. Do you wish to start a business or open a
shop 1 You need no authorisation to do this ; there are no
patents, no licenses. The Government does not busy itself
about you, provided you do not busy yourself about it.

If you take legal proceedings, the case is heard before
your consular tribunal, and you are judged according to the
laws of your own country. Your consul becomes at once
your judge, your notary, your lawyer and your mayor.
And thus the European in the East is a redoubtable per-
sonage ; in everything he has the advantage over the native.
They dub him playfully cha])kale adam, the man with the
hat ; but it is the hat that now takes the lead of the fez.

The European has his postal and telegraph oflSces, his

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 249

quarter is lighted by gas and has all modern European im-
provements such as an underground tunnel to connect
Galata with Pera, tramways from Galata to Chichli, etc.,
otc. He has also the simulacra of amusements ; nowhere
else would he enjoy such independence. He has even the
privilege of not paying his rent, for a clause, all too chari-
table, in Ottoman law forbids a landlord to expel his
insolvent lodgers. If the lodger does not pay, the land-
lord begs him to be so kind as to go ; he will even pay him
a premium in order to induce him to quit the premises.
Sometimes he will push his unselfishness to the point of
hiring another apartment, and of asking him to occupy it.
This law, which for debtors is such a godsend, gives rise
occasionally to most curious incidents.

A European, who owned a large house near the Anglican
Church, had let the ground-floor of it to certain of his
compatriots ; and they soon deemed it wholly unnecessary
to pay their rent. The landlord used every means to make
his imperturbable tenants quit the premises, but these
wortliy folk declared that the apartments suited them
literally down to the ground, and that they really intended
to stay. So the situation remained for some weeks, when
the rabid landlord believed that he had hit upon a trick
that should rid him of the intruders. Profiting one Sunday
by their absence in the country, he put a padlock on the
door of the apartment, and nailed boards across the
windows and shutters. The lodgers, on their return, gave
vent to demoniacal rage, declaring that their youngest
daughter, a tender girl of five summers, had been bar-
barously shut up in the apartment ! Though difficult to
believe, this was actually the case. The landlord hastened

250 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

to set his youthful prisoner free ; but too late. The family
had attested the presence of the little girl in one of the
barricaded rooms, and accordingly sued the landlord for
damages at the Consular Court. And, would you believe
it 1 the poor man, who had met with scant luck all round,
was sentenced to a year's imprisonment for the " sequestra-
tion of a minor " !

Landlords have thus grown extremely prudent, and
candidates for lodgings have to find a kejil, or security for
their solvability and good conduct, who will declare them
to be honest lodgei's. Naturally, no one is in a hurry to
go bail in this way, and a thousand reasons are found for
shirking such responsibility, so that newcomers often
cannot get a roof to shelter them for weeks together.

Another anecdote. A venerable doctor was bothered by
his hall porter and by the wife of tliis functionary who
discharged the important duties of cook. The recalcitrant
couple lived in the porter's lodge, and this lodge, as it
seems, was a charmingly airy place. The doctor, exas-
perated, determined to drive the guilty pair from their
earthly paradise. But, more sly than their ancestoi's
Adam and Eve, the porter and his spouse refused to go.
They affectionately declared that they could never leave so
good a master nor abandon so excellent a lodge. The
knowing doctor had to resort to stratagem, and having by
some pretext lured them out of the house, he installed
their successors in their absence. Imagine what a furious
quartet was later performed by this pair of Boxes and
Coxes ! Indeed, the police found it so moving, that they
had to interfere.

The deplorable state of business in Turkey and the in-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 251

creasing number of failures have singularly reduced the
European contingent. Many needy adventurers, finding
no occupation, have returned to their mother country. On
the other hand, those nababs who came to Turkey at the
propitious moment now desert it. Certain colonies, and
notably the French colony, have diminished by a half or
two-thirds. These departures have been one of the causes
of the famous smash ; they were also brought about by fear
of the acts of horrible cruelty which the Turks would com-
mit wlien the day came of their final fall. Already in the
last war, when the Russians reached San Stefano, the
Europeans of Constantinople were all in mortal fear. It
was everywhere rumoured that the ^Mussulmans intended
to massacre the Christians and these latter fled from Pera
to hide themselves in the neighbouring villages, principally
in such places as were near the Russian army. The same
fears prevail to-day, and all is to be dreaded from the
ferocity of the Osmanli on that day when he sees Constan-
tinople escape for ever from his grasp.

Fears such as these are not puerile ; and they ought to
be taken into consideration by the Great Powers who have
assumed the task of settling the painful Eastern question.
We know for a fact that in the last war, certain young
Turkish patriots had resolved to blow up St Sophia, the
moment the Czar's army entered the streets of Stamboul.
Others purposed to set fire to the whole city, most of which
is built of wood, and so renew for Muscovites the horrors
of the burning of Moscow. Nor let us forget that, from a
Mussulman point of view, the strangling of infidels is a
pious work, and a sure means of gaining a place in heaven.

These are hypotheses which deserve attention. They

252 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

fix a fearful responsibility upon that nation or, on those
nations who shall succeed in laying hands upon this worm-
eaten Byzantium. To protect the lives of Christians in the
East ; to preserve the masterpieces of Byzantine art ; what
a hazardous mission is this for a conqueror ! May the
future spare us a repetition, on the banks of the Bosphorus,
of the infamous bombardment of Alexandria.

Let us turn our thoughts, however, from the future to
the present. It is not only the apprehension of a coming
catastrophe which causes Europeans to leave Constantinople.
What discourages them is the ill-will of the authorities,
with their insufferable exactions and their stubborn
opposition to all progress. To those vices of the Turks, the
faults have to be added of the Europeans themselves who
can neither unite nor concert together to make an opening
in the inert masses. It is this which we shall endeavour
to show by a study of the two chief colonies of the East,
the German and the French. To you. Messieurs les Teutons,
I cede the place of honour !

CHAPTER XVI.

PROGRESS OP GERMANY IN THE EAST. GENERALS AND

MINISTERIAL COUNCILLORS. GERMAN SOCIETY AND

GERMAN SOCIETIES.

German influence in the East only dates from the year
1870; it spi-ang from our trouble and disaster. Turkey,
which feels herself impotent and threatened, has ever been
in search of a power in Europe upon which she might lean.
She had for long sought and enjoyed the friendship of
France, and of this I think she could have had little to
complain. When our ambassador spoke, all Turkey gave
ear to his voice. If he paid a visit to the Sultan, the
whole town was in a stir; the papers were filled with
details of the event and comment was rife concerning it.
Our country, it may justly be said, held a privileged
position in the East.

But all has changed since then. Turkish statesmen
thought that France after so many grievous disasters would
prove a less powerful protectress than heretofore. Ger-
many had acquired the military preponderance in Europe ;

2 54 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

so they unhesitatingly turned their back upon former
alliances, and flung themselves into the arms of the con-
queror. It was as a consequence of this conversion that
the Sublime Porte began to Germanise its official world.
Thus, by a series of sad calamities and unpardonable errors,
Germany supplanted us in the administration of Ottoman
affairs, just as to-day England expels half the French
officials and instals ill-bred children in their vacant chairs !

Turkey asked Prussia to supply her with officers; for
she thought that her army, if re-organised by instructors
with their laurels yet thick about them, would surely
become invincible. Perhaps, too, she naively cherished some
secret hope of a Turco-German alliance against the eternal
enemy, Russia. We have already explained what those
reasons were which hindered the Prussian envoys from
succeeding in their mission. It was the Porte itself, which
after soliciting their aid, did all it could to paralyse their
eflTorts. They were suffered to do nothing ; and yet to-day
their inactivity is made the subject of bitter reproach.

The same thing has occurred in matters civil. The Porte
begged Monsieur de Bismarck to send councillors (muste-
chars) for the different branches of administration. Their
duties corresponded to those of our under-secretaries of State.
These mustechars were appointed some to the Finance
Department, others to the War Office, the Public Works'
Department, the Agriculture, Trade, and Customs' Depart-
• ments, etc. Their salaries varied from thirty thousand to
forty thousand francs. Some of these officials, by extra
jobs here and there, managed to raise the sum total of
their emoluments to the modest one of fifty and sixty
thousand francs. Besides that, they were literally crammed

THE EVIL OF THE EAST, 255

with honoui*s, blinded with decorations, set in brilliants,
stuffed with precious stones ; their wives and daughters
were decorated, and never knew the reason why ; in a
word, they were overwhelmed with dignities ; but everyone
took good care not to follow their advice.

This wretched German mission is like a new Cassandra,
nunquam exaudita Turcis !

When first entering upon their duties, these conscientious
Germans took their task to heart. They sought to check
abuses, and improve the service. They wrote report after
report, presented projects of reform, cut down budgets
and straightened accounts. For all this, they were warmly
thanked, but further than that they never got. They were
soon forced to abandon their illusions, and let their zeal
grow cool. They became aware that the Turks did not
wish to do anything. Seeing that the Sleeping Beauty in
the "Wood absolutely declined to be awakened, they found
it most expedient to slumber in their turn. They threw
aside all their first desires for progress, and were content
with " the trivial round, the common task " of every day,
which, without yawning over-much, they managed to fulfil.
The Imperial Ottoman Bank pays them regularly on the
30th of every month ; what more can they want % They
become resigned, like tutors, to whose care a stupid,
obstinate child is confided.

Such mustechars as hoped to win a position of eminence
in their own country, abandoned their appointments in the
Turkish service as soon as their contract had expired.
One of the most able of them wrote lately that "the happiest
day of his life was that on which he left Constantinople ! "
For a man of worth, to draw a big salary is not all ; he has

2S6 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

a task to accomplish, a duty which he desires honourably
to discharge ; and he chafes at being reduced to impotence,
and at having, as it were, to "mark time " in a marsh.

Besides these higher officials, Prussia has sent many
others of less importance to Turkey ; posts have mostly
been created just for these good gentlemen to fill, all of
them being paid three or four times as much as a native.
There is moreover this important difference, that the native
never gets his pay, while the German is protected by a con-
tract which ensures regularity. If there were any hitch,
any delay, Berlin would grumble ; and Stamboul would
hasten to make amends in double quick time. In a word,
Prussia has started a factory in Constantinople where
Turkish officials are made to order ; and she even agrees to
take back such employes as have ceased to be serviceable or
satisfactory.

This was the primary cause which brought about the
development of German influence in the East. The second
cause has been the energetic support given by the Berlin
Government to its trades and industries so as to allow them
to compete with rival nations in foreign markets. Admir-
ation was not wanting for the excellent organisation of the
German army and strategic genius of its generals in the
campaign of 1870 and 1871. But, as it seems to us, one
ought equally to admire the foresight and the strategy with
which Germany has carried on a commercial and economic
war against us for fourteen years. Praise of this sort may
seem surprising when given by a Frenchman ; but it seems
childish to me wantonly to disparage one's adversaries, or
to refuse to recognise their ability.

It is not by patriotic howls or rhetorical bursts of indig-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 257

nation that we shall re-establish our lost supremacy. It is
by studying, every hour and every minute, those elements
which constituted Germany's success, and by perpetually
meditating upon the means to do better still. Nothing is
more irritating nor more grotesque than these Kermesse of
brawling patriots, whose programme consists of threatening
their enemies from afar, and of loudly swearing, when
liquor is within them, that they will die for their country !
This sort of subscription dinner trumpeting has already
become ridiculous in France ; abroad, it brings us into dis-
credit and serves to tarnish our reputation for taste and for
good sense.

We would rather see societies formed in Paris and other
great commercial centi-es whose business it should be to
support our merchants and industrial houses against
German competition, and which should devise the most
efficacious means for developing the exportation of our
home products. Look at what is happening on the other
side of the Rhine. In Prussia, as in other countries the
metal trades have reached a most dangerous crisis. Mines
have had to stop working, while others are'at a loss how to
get rid of their stock on hand. Under these circumstances
fifty four artisans, mechanics, engineers, contractors and
manufacturers of agricultural and industrial implements
agreed to form a society to be called "The German Union."
The scope of this society is to discover new outlets in
foreign markets, and to determine the price at which the
Union should produce articles, so as to supplant such firms
as hitherto possessed the monopoly. The society is accur-
ately posted in all that goes on, or is discovered, in the
world of commerce ; it studies all proposals for concessions,
R

258 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

and all tenders for contracts. It sends specialists to
countries where it seems likely that business can be
ferreted out.

Two or three years ago, a German engineer went through
the whole of Asiatic Turkey in this way, on a voyage of
commercial discovery. He travelled from town to town,
examining all produce that he saw on his route, making
enquiries as to its origin and market value, studying means
of transport, noting such articles as were wanting to the
inhabitants, copying the designs, forms, and colours
affected by the natives, etc. He then furnished the Berlin
Ministry of Commerce with most valuable information
which should help the latter to organise a German In-
dustrial Army, destined to conquer these vast domains.

In this way German manufacturers soon became aware
that the Turk, who is always short of money, looks out
first of all for what is cheap ; the quality of the article
matters little to him. He is not concerned as to its
solidity or durability, if only the colour and the design be
to his taste, and if only he have not to spend too much
money at a time. While French manufacturers make a
rule only to export stuffs of fine quality that will not wear
out, the Germans have set about manufacturing a sort of
shoddy that they can sell at an incredibly low price. We
have seen and touched with our hands patterns of cloth for
trousers at thirty-six marks the dozen, thus at three shillings
the pair. The Berlinese, the Viennese know that the
Oriental only buys shoddy, so they send him extra fine
shoddy, the cheapness of which defies all competition.
They also are willing to give five and six months' credit.
To get possession of the market is their great aim ; they

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 2^

copy Eastern designs, aud give their stuffs that brilliant
colour dear to the dwellers in the land of the sun, but
which, alas ! will not resist the burning caresses of that
planet. Meanwhile the French manufacturer grows indig-
nant at such a prostitution of industry, and declares that
he will never disgrace his trade mark by turning out such
so-called "qualities." True, the Germans have found a
way to avoid compromising themselves. They stamp on
stuffs such as no manufacturer would dare to own as his,
confection de Paris ; thus they reap the profit while escap-
ing all the discredit. It is in this disgraceful way that we
have lost our trade in sugar, in candles, cloths, ironmongery,
etc.

" The German Union " lately made applications to the
Porte with a view to obtain the concession for a railway
from Dama^^cus to Saint Jean d'Acre. At first there
would seem to be nothing in this, but the enterprise
really concealed a very dangerous trap laid for us.
Damascus is in Syria ; and Syria has for long been opened
to French influence. The inhabitants of the Lebanon
district really believe themselves to be under our protec-
torate. Even in the heart of the country, French is
spoken; and preference is given to articles of French
make. At a sign from France, the Arab, Christian, and
even the Mussulman tribes would rise as one man and
expel the Turks for whom they cherish strong aversion.
A French company built the road, some 112 kilometres in
length, which connects Damascus with Beyrout ; it also
organised a transport service that has no rival in the East,
and which is in all respects as serviceable as a railway.
Seven convoys, each comprising some thirteen or fourteen

2<5o THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

covered vans circulate daily between the two towns, while
two diligences take travellers along the route in ten hours,
thanks to the excellent management Avhich provides
eleven relays of horses. A great part of the caravan traffic
has thus passed into the hands of the Company; and it
has to-day at its disposal some eight hundred horses and
mules, all in excellent condition. The port of Beyrout,
the starting point of this line, is altogether a French town ;
it has sixty silk mills, all owned by Frenchmen, while many
of their compatriots make exquisite wine in the Lebanon
and anti-Lebanon districts, for which in Egypt there is
already a demand. This pretty city of Beyrout, which
sixty years ago had a population of thirty thousand, has
now nearly a hundred thousand.

What is it that " The German Union " proposes to do ?
It proposes to draw all the commerce of Damascus towards
Saint Jean D'Acre, into that corner of Judaea where the
German element is already represented by five flourishing
colonies. By this means, it can establish its preponderance
along the entire valley of the Jordan, open a route towards
the banks of the Euphrates, eclipse French influence in the
capital of Syria, ruin the transport company between
Damascus and Beyrout, while robbing the last named port
of two-thirds of its importance. Happily the Porte did not
accept the demand for concession, or rather happily, it laid
down the prohibitive condition that no European should be
employed either for the construction or for the working of
tlie line. Imagine a line of railway constructed by Turkish
engineers ! The bare idea gives one a shudder.

There you have one instance. A hundred others could
easily be cited that might exhibit the wary, calculating

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 26 1

obstinacy with .vhich the Berlin Government aims at plant-
ing its influence in all points of the globe. We mentioned
the German colonies in Palestine ; let us say a few words
about these. It must be admitted that they are excel-
lently organised. To see them thus prosperous and
flourishing, we sadly remembered those poor Alsatian
villages that we had seen in Algeria ; all the inhabitants
had deserted them ; the houses were falling to ruins ; the
fields had become transformed to marshes ; and the fruit
trees in the orchard became wild again. To discover the
causes of such wreck would take us too far at present ; and
we wish to remain in Turkey.

German colonies are established at Khaifa, at the foot of
Mount Carmel, at Nazareth, at Sarona, at Jerusalem, and
at Jaffa. The Prussian Government has also applied for
permission to form another in the important town of
Iloms, on the line which is to connect the Euphrates
Valley with the Port of Tripoli. Mr Verney Lovett
Cameron tells us that at this point the natural traffic
routes cross, that which follows the course of the Orontes
and the transversal route which joins the Mediterranean
to the Oasis of Palmyra and to the Euphi*ates by the
Valley of Xahr-el-Kebir. These colonies consist of some
five or six hundred persons, recruited in such fashion as to
represent all trades. There are carpenters, blacksmiths,
saddlers, and masons, who are of service, not only to the
colony, but to all the surrounding villages. Each family
has a pretty house built of stone, covered with tiles, and
surrounded by a charming little garden. In the centre
stand the church, the school-house, a meeting-hall, and a
hotel for travellei-s. The leading member of the colony

262 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

lives in his "own elegantly-appointed villa. There are also
mills, beer-houses, and store-rooms. Some of these minia
ture principalities have their own special mint; and coins
thus struck enjoy the same circulation as Turkish money.

These little villages, so inoffensive in appearance, are
really fortresses of a pacific sort, which Germany is busily
constructing in this part of the world. When the time
for doing so comes, they will permit her to make the
interests of her sons a plea for interfering in the affairs of
the country. By degrees, these agricultural cities encroach
upon their neighbours. At Mount Carmel they took
possession of lands belonging to the famous monastery
there. The monks made appeal, but the Turkish tribunals,
full of deference for Germany, reduced the land owned by
the Carmelites to a strip measuring 40 pics (or 30 metres)
round the convent. This may be cited as a good example
of judicial joking. But in Turkey, judgments of this sort
are pronounced daily.

The great force of the Germans lies in their solidarity,
and in their sense of union. It is these qualities which
enable them to form centres of Teutonism in all quarters of
the globe. Wherever Germans meet, they organise associa-
tions, or corporations, or societies. The first have mainly
a commercial or an industrial scope ; the second carry out
an idea either philosophical or patriotic ; the third are
chiefly choral, gymnastic, or tourist societies. Let us
suppose that in an Oriental town there are twenty
Germans. They begin by hiring some place where they
can meet at evening, tvith their families, to drink beer,
smoko their pipes, and read the papers. The words, tvith
their families, are significant ; for, in our opinion, it is just

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 263

this condition which gives vitality to such societies. When
the colony becomes more numerous, it constructs a separate
building, the cost of this being defrayed by subscription ;
it starts a musical society, organises concerts, dances, and
theatrical performances.

The other colonies also attempt to start clubs, and
libraries, but it is always the men who profit by such
institutions, for women consider themselves too delicate to
frequent halls where smoking goes on. What happens
then 1 While the husband is at the club, what do his wife
and daughter do in a strange city where the art of culti-
vating acquaintance is far from a desirable one 1 They
bore themselves to death, abuse the club, and use all their
diplomacy to keep papa* at home.

The Germans again find no pleasure in meeting unless
they can bring their families with them. Every night, at
the society's hall, the men chat and smoke, driiak and play,
while the women work, and for the children there are
amusements as well. If there be a choral society, the
young men and young women have a chance of making
each other's acquaintance ; and such meetings, under their
parents' eyes, often result in happy marriages and in
keeping amorous Teutons out of mischief.

Why do the other colonies not succeed in organising
such centres of re-union 1 The reasons are various. Im-
primis, the German still maintains all the first ardour of
his enthusiasm for German unity. He is enchanted with
the idea of now belonging to a great people, and he supports
with patriotic zeal all institutions which give expression to
the national sentiment. Let but the hour of disillusion
arrive ; let but the germs of jealousy bring forth their fruit ;

264 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

and all this solidarity will collapse and be as gall and
wormwood.

Among Germans who emigrate abroad there is little
rivalry, little jealousy, all being uniformly poor. They
understand the need there is for mutual support and for
having a common fund, fed by their modest resources,
which shall give them such amusements as they best
delight in, — music, dancing, and dinners alfresco. At such
gatherings there are no expenses as regards dress, for
nobody wants to deceive or to dazzle his or her neighbour.
The expenditure is limited, and arrangements are all
made with a strict regard to economy. Beer, the in-
dispensable element at such soirees, is always to be had
clieap, while German cooking does not pretend to be
elaborate.

In the other European colonies, fortunes are less equal ;
there are always certain families who aspire to take the
lead. Some women want to set the fashion in smart dress,
and to make their pretty frocks a pattern for the rest to
copy, while others aim at bearing off the palm for coquetry.
If some society, say, the Pera Ladies' Curl-Paper Society,
tries to organise a fete, it takes the proportions of a great
event. New dresses are needed, and a sumptuous buffet,
and flowers on the staircase. To drink beer seems mean ;
one cannot do without champagne ; and heaven knows what
Pera champagne is at ten francs a bottle ! Under such
conditions the principle of association, instead of realising
an economy, becomes nothing more than a supplement to
expenditure and luxury. The husband complains of such
extra expense ; but his wife has always got this answer
ready : " I had rather not go, if I am to look ridiculous ! "

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 265

By degrees the members of the Society drop away, and it
slowly dies a natural death.

There are not more than five hundred or six hundred
Germans in Constantinople. Despite this limited number,
they have managed to start several associations or Verein.
First on the list comes the Teutonia, which has excellent
premises, though somewhat badly situated. The establish-
ment includes a large hall with a gallery that serves as
theatre or concert-room, a library, a card-room, a billiard-
room, a bowling gallery, a restaurant, etc. The Teutonia
is a home for musical societies, the principal of which is the
Choryesa7igve7-ein. Here, and perhaps only here, one can
listen to good choral music well performed. In winter, the
choirs and bands execute symphonies and oratorios with
remarkable skill ; and it would really seem as if music,
usually massacred in Pera, had sought refuge in the arms
of the German colony.

Besides harbouring such musical societies, the Teutonia
forms the head-quarters of the German Turnverein or
Gymnastic Society, the Excursion League and others. This
League, on all Sundays in summer, organises excursion-trips
to the country. A steamer is hired and the whole colony
takes part in a picnic held at some charming point on the
banks of the Bospliorus or the Sea of Marmora. Under
immemorial plane trees, dancing and games go on to the
sound of music, which is never absent at such festivals,
while at evening tlie company return, singing as they float
back to Pera in the brown dusk some of those tender,
simple lieder, full of grave, moving harmony. Such excur-
sions cost little, while they do much to bind the colony
together by sentiments of self-respect and of good- will. In

266 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

summer, too, there are special school treats, when the
German ambassador throws open tlie charming grounds of
his summer residence at Therapia to all the children and,
with his wife and daughters, presides at the revels of all
tliese rosy, flaxen-haired kinder. Such a holiday is surely
one of the prettiest sights of the year.

While enumerating the German societies of Constanti-
nople, we shall not omit to mention the Mutual Help
Societies, the Charitable Associations and others. Like
those of other nations, the colony has a fine hospital,
beautifully situated. In all Eastern towns we shall find
that the Germans possess similar institutions. At Athens,
there is the Philadelphia ; at Beyrout, they have a German
club next door to the only comfortable hiergarten in the
town. Strange that in a city like Beyrout, wholly French,
there should not be a single coffee-house where one might
read a Paris paper ! There is a Deutscherverein at Alex-
andria ; at Jerusalem, a scientific society, a charitable
association, etc., etc.

Do not let us infer from these facts that the German
people stands first as a colonising nation. Far from it.
In character, it is too heavy, in temperament, too dense,
ever easily to adapt itself to its surroundings. The
German hewn out of one block, is not malleable ; he finds
it difficult to alter the habits of his youth. Under a burn-
ing sky, he will still wear his heavy ill-fitting clothes and
soft felt hat. He cannot give up his coarse, solid food, nor
restrain himself from imbibing a most respectable quantity
of beer. His mind is not of the inventive, unravelling sort,
like that of the Frenchman. Give a Parisian ouvrier a
piece of no matter what, and it will astonish you to see

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 267

what he can make out of it. The German can only do
what he has been taught to do ; and this work he will begin
every day with the same fidelity and the same care.

The difficulty of the language is also a great obstacle to
the expansioD of German influence. Oriental peoples have
an unconquerable dislike to a grammar so complicated and
to constructions so tedious and involved, whose philosophical
disposition they are powerless to master. French and
Italian, on the other hand, with their clearness and pre-
cision, or English, with its simplicity, suit them better.
The Turkish Government used formerly to send its young
men to France to complete their studies in our schools.
But for the last four years it persists in despatching them
to Germany. Evidently this is a very queer notion, since
agriculture as practised in bleak, sandy Germany can have
no sort of connection with the produce of southern countries
and the hot climate of Asia Minor. But, above all things,
an act of condescension had to be performed towards M.
de Bismarck ! Such a piece of nonsense has, however, had
the reward it deserved. Young Turks have never yet been
able to master the German language sufficiently to allow
them to profit by the lessons of their professors.

On the other hand, it is amusing to notice how all the
Prussians, who are in the Turkish service, have had fii"st
of all to make a thorough study of the French grammar,
and to have it literally at their fingers' ends. It is in this
language that they give their instructions, draw up their
reports, and communicate with native officials.

The Berlin Government naturally makes great efforts to
alter this state of things. The study of German is now
obligatory in all Turkish military schools. Moreover, two

268 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

years ago, the Council of Ministers, in order to show its
willingness to comply with the desires of Prussia, was for
abolishing the teaching of French in second-class schools
throughout the Empire, and meant to substitute for this a
course of German. That would have been a great mis-
fortune for France, and the certain ruin of French
influence in the East ! But this measure luckily met with
such difficulties in its application that the Grand Vizier,
fervent adorer, as he is, of the Iron Chancellor, was obliged
to defer the exhibition of such base flattery. Such an
attempt is, however, none the less important as a sign of
the psychological state of Turkey, though no one in
France, as we believe, gave the incident the attention that
it deserved.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE FRENCH IX THE EAST.

If French influence in Constantinople has waned since
1870, it is not alone to our military disasters that this is
due. We have also been the victims of a series of disagree-
able events upon which it is here useless to enlarge.

I have no mind to re-echo the complaints formulated by
our countrymen against recent ambassadors in Constanti-
nople, imagining as I do, that these ministers were in every
whit as able and as experienced as their predecessors.
How comes it then that the part played by them, has for
some years become such an insignificant one 1 From Paris,
not from Byzantium, we must look for the answer.

This want of authority is the result of the shifting,
incoherent state of French home policy. How many times
in fifteen years, has there not been a change of Ministry 1
which is equivalent to asking : how many times have we
not changed our policy ? Whatever politician manages to
lay hold of a morocco portfolio deems it his bounden duty
to carry out a whole set of brand-new diplomatic pro-

270 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

grammes. Says he : "I am not like any other Minister.
I bring you personal ideas as to international policy, as to
necessary alliances, as to the European equilibrium. Try
them ; taste them and see. If they don't do you any good,
they will only cost you a few millions which you will pay
without a murmur." The Minister collapses with his pro-
gramme. Another replaces him who is imbued with but
one idea, viz., to demolish all that his predecessor had
begun, and to burn all that he adored. Such a right-about-
face as this is of course perfectly logical. " My illustrious
predecessor," says he, with a faint smile, " submitted his
programme to you ; but you upset the programme and you
upset him. To-day the papers spue him out of their mouth,
and call him an ill-starred idiotic old woman. Thus, his
programme must have been a bad programme ; and we
must adopt another one. I cannot say that mine will be
better ; but at any rate it will not cost you less."

When, at home, all is thus in a state of chronic uncer-
tainty, what part can an ambassador play ? If he asserts
himself one day, to-morrow he may have to eat his words,
modify his attitude and save his false position by effecting
a precipitate retreat. This is diplomacy in the knitting
style ; drop one stitch ; pick up two, etc.

Besides this perpetual diplomatic jugglery, the unfortu-
nate plenipotentiary has to keep upon good terms with the
new Minister of the Quai d'Orsay. He must enter into
his policy and try to tag it on to that cut short by the out-
going Minister when the zeal of the Chamber shall have
eaten him up. Now, the only thing that impresses Orientals
(as well those nearer home as those in the far, far East) is
the expression of will, of a will energetic, firm, inflexible.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 271

So long as the Turks believe that they see the faintest
chance of changing, they will avoid giving a plain, down-
right answer ; they will drag matters on, opposing all
attempts to arrive at a solution by a system of studied
indolence. If, on the other hand, a European Power should
show that its resolution were firm, and that nothing could
shake it, the Turk would then begin to reason sensibly,
seriously, and consent to the concessions needed.

What has done France most harm in international
debates has been the want of firm political will. Her
representatives are listened to in an absent sort of way,
because they only represent an authority that is weak and
unstable. Let us say in passing, that if Gambetta won so
considerable an influence in Europe, it was because he
possessed that persevering, indomitable will and that
personal energy which achieve the triumph of ideas. To-
day, in 1888, if two Germans meet, the more facetious of
them never fails to ask the other :
" Have you heard the news 1 "
'< What news 1 "
" The great news ? "
"Why, what is it?"

" Oh ! Gambetta is dead ! " Whereupon the two burst
into one of those loud gufiaws of Teutonic laughter which
would seem to have been invented to scare away sparrows
from cherry-trees. Note that this witticism, full as it is
of Germanic salt, is repeated every day, for years. We
ourselves have heard it five hundred times ; and it always
obtains the same success. The elephantine joke only proves
with what serious fears Gambetta inspired the Teutons.
His death procured them a relief so great that they have

272 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

not yet recovered from it ; it lingers, like the after-effect
of a nightmare. For the Germans knew well that Gam-
betta had political ideas of his own, and that he was strong
enough to make such ideas prevail.

Every time there is a change of Ministry in Paris, you
hear foreigners say to each other with a petulant air :
" But what on earth do those French want 1 Can they
never manage to keep quiet? Do they still want to be
brought to their senses'?" And then the Berlin barrel-
organ grinds out its old tunes about Heavenly punishment
and the providential mission of Uhlans.

To such petty impertinences, our parliamentary orators
reply with sonorous speeches that doubtless charm their
electors, tickle the national vanity, and double the sales of
the evening newspapers. But while such phenomenal
bursts of eloquence electrify listeners, other nations are at
work, steadily getting possession of the lands which we
abandon to them. In France, unfortunately, we always
take grasshoppers for ants ! Europe having abandoned us
in 1870, we contracted the dangerous habit of no longer
busying ourselves about Europe. Our short-sighted poli-
ticians think the universe is enclosed between the Seine
and the Marne ; and that the four cardinal points of the
Globe are Saint-Denis, Saint-Germain, Vincennes, and
]\Iontrouge. This indifference to international questions is
not solely the result of an excess of vanity ; it also results
from an excess of ignorance. How many, think you, of
the hundred provincial lawyers who govern us have ever
visited foreign countries? And how many know enough
English or German to read the Berlin, London and Vienna
papers? These departmental lanterns, who serve well

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 273

enough to light up their own parish steeple, prove
absolutely worthless when it comes to illuminating the
vast theatre of European politics.

We no longer possess those generations of statesmen
who, from their youth up, had been trained in the
diplomatic world. When they came into power, they had
already the advantage of personal relationship with the
great leaders of each State. I remember that M. Albert
Sorel, in one of his remarkable lectures at the JScole des
Sciences Politiques, told us : " The diplomatic world is a
world apart, which has its traditions, its exigencies, its
morals. The men of this world are mutually acquainted
with each other, and distinctions of nationality have, for
them, little importance. When a Congress is held, they
meet like old colleagues ; each knowing his neighbour's
strong and weak points. It is a world, both inaccessible
and exclusive, where newcomers, neophytes, are always
heard with courtesy, but rarely with attention." Tliis
observation may perhaps explain why many of our most
gifted and distinguished men have failed pitiably in their
diplomatic missions.

Almost the same thing might be said as regards our
consular agents. They are, all of them, most friendly,
obliging, and courteous, but their education has been too
literary, too worldly a one ; and not practical enough.
They mainly care for the political, administrative, and
judicial attributes of their office ; its commercial side is
little to their taste. To many, indeed, the most rudimentary
scientific knowledge is wanting. They could neither
classify a mineral, a plant, nor detect the nature of a soil.
Economic questions, agricultui'O, and statistics interest
S

274 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

them little, although in this direction serious progress has
been attempted during the last few years. They are
flattered at belonging to the diplomatic world ; and to the
price of oil, grease, and cotton they are indifferent. One
can hardly bear them a grudge for this ; it is but the
result of that narrow infatuation for so-called liberal
education, which has dominated France for centuries, and
has diverted the attention of the best minds from practical
things. What an advantage for our country it would have
been if our consuls, in addition to their regular course of
study, could have profited by the teaching at our high
schools of agriculture and commerce !

The English and the Germans choose as their consuls
men who have had thorough training, which enables them
to deal with economic questions. English consuls are often
engaged in trade. Their superiors keep them a long while
in one place so that they may make a complete study of
their surroundings, acquire personal influence, and keep an
eye upon all changes which the country undergoes. A
consul's inopportune removal may have the most grievous
results ; it is quite different from replacing a deputy
attorney-general or a prefect. Our compatriots in Alex-
andria bitterly complain that their consul was removed just
when affairs there had reached a crisis. To what disasters
did not this withdrawal lead ? No Frenchman can walk
through this magnificent city with other than a heavy
heart as he sees its streets and buildings broken up into
heaps of ruins, the remains of the iniquitous bombardment.
Our abstention, at that epoch, produced a most deplorable
impression throughout the entire Levant, an impression not
yet effaced, yet which diminishes in proportion to the firm-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST 275

ness of our attitude towards the carrot-coloured in-
vader.

After the consuls come the dragomans or interpreters.
They have a great influence in the East, and often absorb
the importance of their chief. The dragomans are usually
in their ofiicial capacity, Levantines, Armenians, or Greeks,
and, too often they are influenced by local or personal
spite. Admitting even that their sense of equity and
honour be irreproachable, their compatriots do not fail to
accuse them of partiality and call them obstructionists.
The choice of a dragoman is indeed a most difficult and
delicate one. It might be well for us to establish (as the
English have done at Ortakeuy) a school for student inter-
preters, where young Frenchmen could be prepared for
their official duties, and so supplant the natives who now
discharge them.

Frenchmen established in foreign parts often deplore
the habit which our Government has got of looking at
questions in a narrow, centralising sort of way. Every-
thing on earth is not limited to satisfying the Paris Muni-
cipal Council ; and it w^ould be well, now and again to
reflect upon the consequences which certain acts might
have abroad. As a most striking instance, let us mention
the strife between the State and the Clericals. It is not
our intention to discuss the legitimacy of such expulsive
measures, nor to comment upon the political sagacity of
that minister who caused their adoption ; but we only
desire to show that from the point of view of our influence
in the East nothing more harmful could possibly have been
devised.

It must be remembered that all the French schools in

276 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

the East, the asylums, hospitals ai>d hospices for travellers
have been founded and are managed by priests or nuns.
The College of Saint Benoifc at Galata, the French College
at Cadikeui, the university and schools at Beyrout with
their faculty of medicine, the agricultural school at Scht6ra,
the French colleges of Smyrna, Aleppo, Aintab, Damascus,
Cairo and a hundred others — in fact all the French estab-
lishments of public instruction, except the Imperial College
of Galata-Serai, are kept by Jesuits, Lazarists, Franciscans
or Brothers. French lay teaching does not exist in the
East. It may well be supposed that these monks do not
profess unbounded affection for our Government. It
would be a wonder if they did. At Beyrout, they say that
the Jesuits held a thanksgiving service when Gambetta
died. What, then, may they be expected to do on the day
that Heaven takes back from us M. Jules Ferry 1 In de-
claring war so noisily against clericalism, our Government
deprived itself at a blow of all its chief means of influence
in the East.

Our political dissensions have also tended to produce a
want of cohesion among French colonies in Eastern towns.
Union, accord have become impossible. On the anni-
versary of their Kaiser's birthday, all the German
residents assemble in enthusiastic fashion. Festivals and
banquets are organised, and not a man would be missing
at such a public manifestation of patriotism and loyalty.
But, supposing the 14th of July, a French festival, has to
be celebrated ! How marked is then the disunion ! The
Monarchists veil their faces ; the Independents and the
Intransigeants withdraw in a rage. Only the ofllcial
personages are left, together with a few tradesmen who

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 277

supply the Embassy. So disheartening has this spectacle
become, that it has been suppressed. All is now limited to
a formal visit to the Ambassador, when ti-ite speeches are
delivered, and raspberry vinegar is handed round.

It is this want of cohesion which makes it impossible to
found musical societies, such as those which the Germans
have. Into everything the spirit of political antipathy
enters.

If four Frenchmen meet of an evening to play dominoes,
each one forces the other to listen to the latest views of
this or that Paris paper which he has just been reading,
and tries to override him with his opinion. And even that
opinion is not his own ; it costs him twenty francs post-
free per quarter.

The Frenchwoman, again, intelligent, spirituelle as she
is, loves to domineer. She has an irresistible longing for
precedence. It would please her well enough to organise a
gathering, provided she were the centre of it. If French
ladies wish to set about starting a charitable association,
you will see the same antagonism, the same rivalry as exist
in small French provincial towns between aovs-pr^fetef
mairesse and presidente. The less important they are, the
less they agree ; that is why French society abroad is not
influential, because it cannot be influenced.

And is one to conclude from all tliis that the French are
not colonisers 1 They say so. But who says sol Why,
the English, those islanders from the extreme West, who
have the charming habit of attributing all defects and all
vices to us, the drollest thing being that we naively repeat
all these British impertinences.

Never believe a word of all that. The English have

278 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

their reasons' for what they do; and we know how much
their good faith is worth a yard. We notice, on the con-
trary, that wherever the French have sojourned, they have
left a mark not to be eflfaced and have won for themselves
lively sympathy. In proof of this, we need only point to
Syria, Egypt, Canada, He de France, and elsewhere. John
Bull cannot say as much. Though he may have clapped
his heavy paw upon a hundred points of the globe, he has
never won hearts; and his going would provoke neither
tears nor regret.

Moreover, what does the Frenchman need to make him
a good coloniser^ He is accommodating, and takes life
easily anywhere. He suits himself to all sorts of climates
and all sorts of food. He is tolerant and never worries
the natives about their religious beliefs and customs.
Everywhere he is liked, because the people feel that he
does not wish to exploit or to ruin the country. The
Englishman, on the other hand, while allowing his colonies
great independence, makes a point of sapping all their
wealth. He sucks them like a lemon ; and then, if they
complain, he points gravely to the rind, showing that that
is intact.

When passing Cyprus, our steamer took passengers on
board at Limasol and Larnaca. We asked them : " What
is England doing in Cyprus ? "

" She is ruining us," they answered gloomily.

If you would have an idea of the British method of
absorption, go to Egypt and you will see how thoroughly
disorganised is the Government. The commerce of Cairo
and chiefly that of Alexandria, are in an astonishingly
distressful state, while agriculture is ruined by the insecurity

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 279

which has desolated the country and even the towns.
French and nati^^e officials have been removed to make way
for successors shipped straight from London. Under pre-
text of reorganising it, the army has been annihilated.
Nay, I beg pardon, English officers have taught the Egyptian
soldiers these tliree important things —

Firstly : They have taught them to carry a little cane
according to the fashion adopted by the soldiers of Her
Britannic ^lajesty. That is always a source of profit to
the cane shops !

Secondly : They have rigged out all the native fifes and
bugles in those staring uniforms, with stripes down every
seam, so that they look like Episcopal servants — a very
triumph of that decorative art so remarkable among the
sons of Albion !

Finally : They hung round them that oilcloth havresack
fastened on to their back by countless straps and buckles —
a most delightful addition to their dress in such a hot
climate. True, the ancient Egyptians swathed their ances-
tors in rags and cere-cloths, but this was done only after
death.

We may also add that the Egyptian soldier, like the
Turk, is remarkably sober. What will happen to him after
such long contact with bold British bibbers and Scotch
swillers, who nightly reel through the streets, and who
make the fortune of every " English Bar " opened in the
land of the Pharaohs ?

Ask the merchants and they will tell you how much
English rule has impoverished the country. You will hear
all their anathemas hurled at " the red grasshoppers." The
persecutors of the Irish are free, then, to say that the

28o THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

French are not a race of colonisers. Colonisers of the
English type, no, certainly not !

The Frenchman has this characteristic quality that he
can draw profit from anything and everything. The
humblest artisan, the simplest sailor has a genius for
invention. When he arrives in some country he examines
all its products and at once discovers to what advantage
they may be turned. Despite all that they say, he learns
native languages quite as easily as the Englishman or the
German. If his advance in these is slower, it is because
everyone persists in talking French to him, and because he
has never any difficulty in making himself understood.

The only reproach, if reproach it be, that can be urged
against him is that he is too greatly attached to his native
country and that he always cherishes an ardent longing to
return there. Put him in some terrestrial paradise ; he
will always think himself in exile and will sigh for the
moment when he may return. It is the old story of the
Parisian woman who sighs for her rivulet in the Rue du
Bac ! Thus there is nothing fixed and definite in a French-
man's establishment on foreign soil. He hires, he does
not buy ; if he builds, he does not plant. For him all is
temporary, transient, a state of things that lasts perhaps
thirty or forty years ; but the secret hope ever exists
within him of seeing his native country again.

The Englishman, on the other hand, is always at home,
because he brings away with him, even to his very boots, a
bit of England. He builds himself a solid cottage with a
garden planted full of fine trees ; he has an English
governess ; and he makes tea in an English teapot, drink-
ing it out of an English teacup, while eating plum cake

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 281

Huntley & Palmer's Wafer and other genuine English
biscuits. He can imagine himself to be in England. In
fact he is there ; and he never feels the need to return
thither.

English families are so numerous that the parental ties
are soon loosed. As soon as they reach adolescence, John
sails for Australia, Archibald for Ceylon, Edward for the
Cape, William for Canada, while Horace, the eldest,
remains at home. As for Mary, she marries a vice consul
in America, Fanny is the wife of a Hong Kong surgeon, and
Kate starts with a clergyman for New Zealand. Perhaps
they will never see one another again. Each of them will
become a fixture in the land whither fate has brought
him, and each will breed his batch of little Englishmen
and Englishwomen, who, following the example of papa
and mamma, will send to London for their teapots, their
braces, their mustard, their pickles, their boots.

France's colonial weakness is associated with the grave
question of the falling off in birth-rates, which just at
present claims the attentions of our economists. In our
families where there are only one or two children, they are
never allowed to expatriate themselves ; and parents
tremble when their son talks of going abroad to seek his
fortune. Rather would they have him lead a humdrum,
commonplace life at home.

" My son, you must go to the bar ! "

" But, father, to get called to the bar is not to get a
position 1 "

"No ; but it's a means of creating one. You will become
a magistrate — perhaps a deputy. The barrister's gown
leads to the ministerial portfolio."

282 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

" But I have no turn for eloquence ! "

'• Then you'll get some Government post. There you will
vegetate on a ridiculously small salary ; but that won't pre-
vent your making a wealthy marriage. Fathers of families
with handsome dowries to bestow adox*e Government
officials."

Our youths are also less prepared to rough it in the
Colonies than are the English, who, from childhood, are
accustomed to ride, swim, shoot, and row, besides being
proficient at gymnastics, boxing and fencing, cricket, lawn-
tennis, football. Jumping and running also take up a
great portion of their time. If called upon to leave the
mother country, they are more muscular, and in better con-
dition than our young bacheliers, emaciated by college
life. Since the terrible lessons of 1870, the need of a more
careful physical training of our youths has been felt in
France ; but at the same time they are expected to study
too many things at once. Their mind is overtaxed at the
cost of their body. One single point is sufficient to settle
the question. How many young men in France can ride
well 1 Now, in Asia, Africa, or Australia it is impossible
to live without you can ride fairly well.

Wherever we went in the East, we noticed to our deep
regret that the number of French residents had consider-
ably diminished. At Constantinople this was the case, and
also at Smyrna, Beyrout, Alexandria and Cairo. But by a
curious compensation, the use of the French language has
made the most astonishing progress. Formerly throughout
Turkey the sole language spoken was Italian. Now this is
only talked by harbour masters and sailors, while French
is spoken everywhere ; in the drawing-room, the office, the

TH5 EVIL OF THE EAST. 283

restaurant or the shop. If two strangers meet in the
street, it is in French that they accost each other first. In
an office, either public or private, all instructions are issued
in French. Posters, circulars, advertisements, and the
names of streets are all printed in French. No Perote
lady is thought to have finished her education before she
can speak French fluently.

Our country has, then, an instrument of considerable
influence in its hands. Will it know how to profit by it 1
Will it know how to retain it 1 Language is the most
powerful of all propaganda, for it carries with it ideas and
opinions. The East is thus open to our journals, novels,
and plays. If France have lost some of her military and
connnercial prestige, and if she do not stand first in all
branches of art, at least nothing has been able to weaken her
superiority in literature. All other countries debate about
the productions of her authors, and all the theatres in the
world live by her dramatic works. If other countries
cannot carry off" our authors, they often try to copy and
plagiarise them for their theatres. This at least is one way
of acknowledging our pre-eminence in literature.

CHAPTER XVIII.

PERA AND PEROTES. TURKS AND TOMBS. — MUSIC AND

THEATRES. HOW THEY DANCE IN PERA.

Our eagerness faithfully to paint the actual situation of
the French in the Levant, led us to make a zig-zag journey
across Asiatic Turkey and even through Egypt. We will
return to Pera and there remain.

Pera consists mainly of one long artery called the Grande
Rue de Pera. The term grande only applies to a part of
the street, for half of it is dark and narrow, wliile the other
is broad and well laid down with pavements of the proper
sort. This latter part was re-constructed after the great
Pera fire in 1870.

It is in this street that all the life of the European part
of Constantinople is centred. There you must walk at
morniug, at noon, and at night ; it is there where appoint-
ments are made ; it is there where everyone is fated to
meet. On these two hundred yards of paving-stone,
characters are taken away and reputations blasted ; calumny

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 285

and vice make this their market, and vdrtues are sold there
either for cash or on the credit system.

Every Sunday the young Perote mashers parade on the
pavement, all tremendously "got up," to see the pretty
women come back from church ; and in Pera there is no
lack of pretty women, who are all quite pleased at the
admiration offered to their powdered faces and multi-
coloured gowns.

Churches in Pera are hidden away in obscure corners or
behind houses in back streets. This would seem to prove
that the Turks were once not so tolerant as they are to-
day. Formerly, too, bells were forbidden, and at most
monasteries in the East, the faithful are still called to
prayer by striking long bars of wood or iron with a mallet.
But the Pera churches have bells which ring out peals in
perfect freedom. Service is over, and down the dark streets
all the pretty sheep scamper in flocks. Every eyeglass is
adjusted and trembles nervously, while a joyous sound of
babbling and laughter mounts to heaven. The crowd
thickens, for the Latin, Greek, Catholic, Armenian, and
Protestant churches are gradually emptying their contents.
Far away in some comer there is even a poor little Maronite
church. Only Syrians, Abyssinians and Copts are wanting
to make the whole council complete. But see, the march-
past is at an end ; bows and hand-shakes have been ex-
changed ; and everybody goes back to lunch ; the young
incense-burners disperse, each conscious of having done his
duty.

Walking is impossible in the streets that branch off from
the Grand' Rue, so steep, so dirty, so ill-paven are they, full
of holes, where by day you may break your ankle, and at

286 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

night, your neck. The great yellow dogs lie curled up and
half hidden in some of these gins and pitfalls, while round
about there are their sturdy puppies all at play. Every
street is full of such cavities, which, if they prove danger-
ous to human beings, are at least useful to the poor dogs
- as impromptu kennels. Without a garden to grace them or
a shop to make them bright, these streets seem utterly
empty and lifeless, and this effect is heightened by the un-
tenanted ground-floor and dingy staircase which lead
visitors to the habitable portion of every house. In this
lower part, dirt and smells prevail.

Pera happily possesses two pretty gardens, both with
beautiful views. The more frequented is the Petiis Champs
or Municipal Garden, situated in a central position over-
looking Stamboul and the Golden Horn. At sunset the
water reflects all the flaming sky against whose crimson
glories are arrayed the dark slender minarets, like a file
of giant lances. The garden has been laid out on the site
of an ancient Turkish burying-ground, and what strife and
cunning did it not cost ere the Mussulman authorities
would consent to the desecration by giaours of this hallowed
spot ! To Turks, indeed, it was well nigh sacrilege, who
bury their dead a few feet under the soil and are moreover
careful to dig a passage connecting the corpse with the
outer air. Such noxious exhalations are of course danger-
ous to public health ; but nowadays the burials in Con-
stantinople are performed with greater care.

The garden thus after much difficulty was laid out and
has grown gradually larger. The Turks willingly over-
looked its desecration ; and they may now often be seen at
the Petits Champs, drinking their glass of beer while listen-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 287

ing to the strains of Signer Ricci's respectable orchestra.
Tlie other constant visitors to the garden are the European
residents, the Jews, Greeks and Armenians. The demi-
monde is I'epresented by a few powdered ladies of the
music-hall who have retired, to live upon their own
incomes and upon those of others. There are many damsels
too, of the sort that once made Mabille and Cremorne so
popular. In Europe they are not so bold, but keep within
the bounds of that modesty which suits their sex and the
views of the police. But in Pera they take a higher social
rank ; you may see them in staring dresses at the theatre
and the public gardens ; they even sing for a charity if they
can. They sit at the same tables and sip beer in company
with honest women ; they exchange leers with favoured
faithful customers, or else strut along the garden walks
wriggling their huge bustles, of the latest Parisian make,
which are warranted to render emotion at will. As
chaperon they liave an elderly lady who puts on all the airs
of a dignified duenna.

Gay deceivers who come to Pera for the first time are
surprised to find how easily they can seduce, on the very
day of their arrival, the pretty girl promenaders of the
Petits Champs. Burning glances, radiant smiles, and
exchange of notes, an assignation, nothing is wanting to
make the romance complete. Then, when evening comes,
the eager tourist rushes off to the address given, and is
flabbergasted at finding so many ladies seated in the
drawing-room, and at seeing that his tender affection has
all been priced and tariffed by a considerate "aunt." O gay
Lotharios, distrust these doxies, and leave all your illusions
at the mouth of the Bosphorus ! All here is commercial,

288 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

love included. If a little lady with tip-tilted nose talk to
you of her lover, never let such a euphemism mislead you.
Lover means principal client, a regular customer ; but the
preference has nothing exclusive about it ; and the privi-
leges that are his may at this moment be yours.

The other garden, no less municipal than the first-named,
is that at Taxim. It is in a far more neglected, desolate
state, though it has a finer view, for it looks over a large
part of the Bosphorus with the Dolma Baghtch^ Palace.
To the right lies the Sea of Marmora, and Scutari opposite,
a picturesque city with all its panes that the sinking sun
transforms to cubes of burnished gold. Discouraged doubt-
less by so few visitors, the band wails in doleful fashion,
while the little open-air theatre, damp and decayed, is
dropping to pieces.

It is a matter for regret that these municipal gardens,
instead of being opened free to the public, are let to pro-
prietors who charge a piastre (or two pence) entrance. In
truth, there i§ not a single shady, pleasant comer in Pera
where one may sit gratis and take the air. The military
bands never play for the public, though occasionally they
are allowed to perform at some Embassy fete. But that is
an amusement for the stucco, stuck-up " society " of Pera,
not for the public. The military bands, like the army,
belong to the Sultan, and are kept exclusively for Imperial
use.

In the Levant, Mussulmans and even Christians are
wont to meet in graveyards, which form their favourite
place of promenade. The Orientals have not the same
superstitious feelings about burying-grounds that we have.
They sit down on the tombs in the shade of dark cypresses,

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 289

call for coffee and their iiarghiU, and so spend a day in
stolid placidity. So the post of cafedji to a cemetery is a
lucrative one. The immense burying-grounds at Scutari are
those chiefly visited by Mussulmans; vast enclosures contain-
ing magnificent cypress-trees. The tombstones stand so
close together that it is difficult to walk past them. They
usually consist of a large slab with a hole in the centre,
which is supposed to communicate with the corpse, and at
the top and bottom are two marble columns which resemble
huge wax tapers. A commoner sort of tombstone is
made in the form of a marble figure rather like a Guy
Fawkes, each fossil man being decorated with a fez or a
turban, according as the tomb was set up before or after
the reform in Turkish head-gear, introduced at the begin-
ning of this century by Sultan Mahmoud. From afar, the
effect is that of a petrified army, that Perseus, when passing
with Medusa's head, might have hardened into stone. All
round them women sit in groups ; their purple, i-ed, violet
and yellow feradjis (or loose cloaks) seem at a distance like
huge poppies or peonies growing here and there among the
graves. Their little girls in bright frocks and with wavy,
dishevelled hair, gambol about on the grass, while itinerant
vendors of food pass in and out, and do a thriving trade.
The whole scene is one that might tempt any painter.

This sort of dolce far niente among the meadows of
eternal repose savours too greatly of the charnel-house to
please the Perotes, little inclined as they are to philosophy.
And they have found out for themselves,jin the environs of
Pera, a place where they can " spend a happy day," or a
happy hour. Their choice fell upon that unspeakable
suburb Chichli ! Surely the idea was the oddest ever bred

290 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

within Perote brain. Imagine a dusty, arid highroad, laid
hare on all sides to the burning sun ; not a tree, not a
flower, not a drop of water; only a little tawny grass on
one side, and a batch of ugly brick buildings on the other.
In the centre runs the tramway line, its rails and paving
stonfes being the sole ornament of this enchanting site.
The tramway ends at this point and the Company has its
stables here, which was doubtless an inducement to Perotes
to make the place their favourite rendezvous. No vegeta-
tion ; no flower-beds ; no fountain ; nothing to charm the
eye ; nothing but the white dust that powders you, and the
sun that laughs. What can he be laughing at? In this
dry, disagreeable spot, five or six sheds have been put up,
under which chairs and tables are arranged. Tliere are
even one or two dilapidated hotels. Such a desolate plateau
commands indeed a rather fine view, but Perotes are care-
ful to turn their backs on the panorama, and sit at little
tables in the beer-sheds overlooking the tramway line.
Thus beer-drinkers on the right can spend their day in
placid contemplation of beer-drinkers on the left. Occasion-
ally a blatant band discourses music such as one might
expect from a herd of wounded rhinoceroses ; or blind
beggars with cracked guitars thrum till they get pity and
piastres ; but as a rule the clink of pint-pots and mastic-
glasses falls sweetest on the Perote ear.

All is flat and vulgar, here ; it seems a sort of sickly
attempt at diversion ; such sheds are the very emporium
of dulness, the home of the hackneyed. Only now and
again the landscape is varied by the sailors of some embassy
despatch-boat who, crimson with pleasure and exercise,
gallop furiously past on hired steeds. That Chichli should

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 29 1

be in vogue as a pleasure resort is the more strange con-
sidering that the environs of Constantinople are admitted
to be the most lovely in the world, and the Bosphorus
abounds in enchanting spots for recreation and refresh-
ment. One is durabfoundered at such absolute want of
perception of the beautiful. For that matter, the Iievan-
tine, narrow-minded money-grubber that he is, understands
little or nothing of the beauties of nature. With hira,
the artistic sense is still in a rudimentary state. If he
builds a house, he pitches it on a point where it is most
readily seen, never caring for the environment of shady
trees or of rippling brooks.

Along the whole length of this great city of Constanti-
nople which stands on the borders of the Bosphorus, there
is not one attractive cafe which might be made a place of
resort on fair summer nights and whence one might watch
the silvery moonlight as it falls on domes and minarets
that flank the trembling sea. Yet what a scene is this
of Stamboul by night ; how moving, how memorable !
Perotes, however, are not poetic ; they care for none of
these things ; and even if they did, they would find it hard
to gratify this taste for music and moonlight on the Golden
Horn.

We have depicted Chichli in all its barren hideousness,
as well as the two gardens on which the world of Pera de-
pends for its outdoor refreshment. Now, let us speak of
indoor delights. No mention need be made of those melan-
choly music-halls, (or shall we say hooting-halls ?) of the
seventh, tenth-rate order. For they are really only the
lobbies of low gambling hells. No respectable family can
ever enter such pestilent establishments, where the waiting

292 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

is done by large-bosomed ladies whose splitting stays en-
close an insatiable stomach and a most hospitable heart.
It is curious to note how the institution of women-
waitresses has become general in the East, in Constanti-
nople, Smyrna and Cairo. In Pera restaurants, however,
the waiters are men, mostly Greeks, who do their work
very smartly and well.

Occasionally, in the winter season, opera and operette
companies try their fortunes at the two available theatres.
But they usually come to grief. The impresario disappears
one fine morning with the cash-box, leaving the members of
his troupe, rampant and gnashing their teeth. In summer,
Italian opera is performed al fresco in a garden. The
entrance-fee is only five piastres, or a shilling — cheap
music this, certainly ; but often far from bad. Such a way
of paussing one's evenings is among the pleasantest. Then
conjurors, gymnasts, and performing cats or monkeys put
in an appearance to break the monotony. Nearly all such
entertaining persons are at once invited to show off their
tricks at Yildiz, where, as it seems, the court is often hard
up for amusement. They get handsome fees, (a hundred
and two hundred Turkish pounds) besides jewelled snuff-
boxes and decorations. Such gala nights are of course the
best and surest sources of profit to the poor impresario or
mountebank, for the Perote public is very loth to unloose its
purse-strings. At times some juggler or comic singer suc-
ceeds in amusing His Imperial Majesty, when he is forth-
with attached to the palace, receives a good pension, and
can live at Constantinople in monied ease.

Twice or thrice in the season some courageous individual
will organise a concert, the tickets being sold at prices fit

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 293

to terrify an indifferent public. The ambassadresses must
send round tlie tickets, otherwise the concert proves a dead
failure. And if you get a ticket, you must pay up your
pound and look pleasant, or else run the risk of offending
Her Excellency. Pera "high life" attends the concert,
more from motives of politeness than from love of music.
The Russian Embassy is specially zealous in backing up any
ninth-i-ate musicians from Muscovy. Some of these voca-
lists and pianists have not the faintest claim to serious
attention ; but, just because their ambassadress gives them
support, they succeed financially, if not artistically. We
remember a Hebrew lady from Odessa, Avith a spiral mouth
and a voice like a fog-horn. She came to Pera, she sang,
she conquered.

From the list of such entertainments we should certainly
not omit the public, charity, and fancy dress balls. They
are the acme of all that is ridiculous.

This is pretty much what a public ball at Pera means.
A crowd is got together in a small theatre, and in the
centre of the pit an orchestra is stationed which occasionally
plays a waltz or a polka, and then waits for half-an-hour or
so. During these interminable waits there is no other
amusement except walking round and round the theatre,
for there are no seats or chairs on which to rest, chat and
flirt. Each couple walks gravely along, their steps being
regulated by those of their predecessors ; and this gyratory
movement continues until dawn. In the centre of the
circus you may see a most respectable gentleman whirling
about. He wears irreproachable evening clothes, swings
arms and legs about like windmill-sails on a common,
and gives himself an infinity of trouble. Who is he 1

294 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Professor Trippingtoii Pump, who has kindly undertaken
the duties of M.C. at this delightful ball. In other words,
it is he who has to shout out : En avant deux ! Balancez
V08 dames ! He stimulates the dancers, revives the ladies,
recruits the vis-a-vis and puts them all in their proper
place. Each quadrille needs a good half-an-hour's prepara-
tion ; and nothing is more ludicrous than to see the wretched
professor rushing from one couple to another to stop the
dancers from leaving their plades, and vainly trying to
establish a symmetry that, so soon as secured, is spoilt.
Nobody ventures to contest his authority, but nobody attends
to him ; and it is this which drives him to despair. How
great then, is his joy when he can at length exclaim, with
aions stretched wildly in the void, I'raversez/ In the
second figure he passes down the double line of dancers and
touches each on the breast with his linger, giving them the
countersign, vous sortez, vous restez, vous sortez, vous restez,
etc. As for the last figure of all, it becomes a series of
endless, labyrinthine manoeuvres, which vary according to
the fertility of imagination possessed by the professor
aforesaid.

Be it noted that, admission to these little fetes costs the
modest sum of twenty-three francs or three francs more
than the ball at the Paris Opera. True, this is only the
official figure ; there are always obliging vendors who hang
about the entrance to the ballroom, and will sell you a
ticket for a medjidi^, or four francs fifty cents.

In ordinary Levantine drawing-rooms, smoking goes on
the whole evening ; the ladies, especially the elder ones, set
the example. After dancing a polka you have the satisfa,c-
tion of oflering your fair partner a light when taking her

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 295

back to her place. It must be allowed that some of the
ladies smoke in a very seductive manner, holding their
cigarette with the tips of their tiny fingers and dispersing
the blue clouds of smoke by little coquettish fan-flaps.
But what an atmosphere after three hours' dancing in this
opaline mist ! Sometimes in a corner a young mother sits
suckling her child, smoking all the while. A partner comes
to claim her, so she buttons up her dress, hands over baby
to a friend, flings away her cigarette and dances the
scliottische.

Greeks and Armenians have their national or religious
festivals, and on such occasions some fifteen or twenty
thousand persons assemble in the open air. On the 1st of
May they hang a wreath of flowers over the door of every
house — ^a pretty custom, w^hich makes the streets fragrant
with all the first perfumes of the spring.

Greek festivals abound ; almost every day they pay
visits to some fountain whose waters are famed for their
miraculous virtues. Tents are pitched there ; sheep are
roasted whole ; and there is much eating and drinking on
the sward, while to amuse the company, mountebanks and
bears arrive, and dancing gipsy girls, who sing quaint
Turkish songs as they clap their hands. Mandolines are
heard everywhere, as well as the cornet and the clarinet.
This latter is an instrument that has a great vogue in the
East. A negro is as inseparable from his clarinet as a
Spaniard from his guitar. To see the bucolic simplicity of
such gatherings, one might believe that this was the golden
age. Instead of that, it is the age of gold, wliich is by no
means the same thin".

296 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Weddings are generally occasions for ruinous expense, as
each family deems itself obliged to dazzle the guests by
truly Oriental luxuriousness. There are dances, dinners,
excursions, picnics, and the festivities last for several days,
when it is found that all the savings of bride and bride-
groom have gone to pay the piper. The bride buys heaps
of trinkets and dresses — enough to last her for many years.
In certain provinces of Asiatic Turkey, the husband has
to give his bride ten dresses, ten mantles, ten bonnets, ten
pairs of boots, etc. — a sort of decimal prodigality. Many
such gifts are faded and spoiled before they can be
used.

To resume : Pera is a little town at once pretentious and
tiresome. By picking and choosing, it is not impossible to
form rather a pleasant circle of acquaintances ; but the
great want in such circles is the want of intellectual con-
versation— of conversation that braces and lifts the mind.
One is soon tired of the perpetual gossip and dull twaddle,
just as one grows sick of the rahat lo koum or other cloying
sweetmeats which are offered and eaten all day long.
People chatter too much and do not talk enough ; they go
to bed with weary head and empty brain. Spiteful persons,
of whom there are many, give a certain dash of piquancy
to the general dulness ; and every Perote lady loves to strew
the cayenne pepper of scandal. She receives her friends,
entertains them ; but when they are gone, reviles them.
Such people, therefore, as care for something pleasanter
than to have social sewerage filtered into their ears, remain
at home, and spend their evening with a few good books
that have just come from Europe. In the day, one can

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 297

walk or ride to some interesting site ; and these excursions,
with perhaps a little drawing, and a great deal of music,
suffice to divert and refresh the visitor. In fact, he can
have all sorts of amusements in Pera, if he be always care-
ful never to profit by the amusements which the place
professes to affi>rd.

CHAPTER XTX.

SWINDLING AND SWINDLERS IN PERA. — BOGUS BORDEAUX. —
THE ART OF IMITATION. SCENT, CHEMISTS AND QUARAN-
TINE. IN THE BAZAARS.

That resigned moi-tal who dwells upon the banks of the
Bosphorus may say to himself each day as he rises : " I am
going to be robbed all day long." This morning meditation
prepares his mind for subsequent torment. He will be
robbed ; by his servants who have an understanding with
the tradesmen ; by the restaurant- waiter who will try and
palm off upon him money that is either false or that has
lost some of its value ; by the sarraf who exacts a mon-
strous percentage for changing his money ; by the banker
who cheats him on the exchange ; by officials either private
or public, who invariably make a slip in their calculation ;
by lawyers ; by the police ; by his friends ; by his parents ;
by his brother, if he have one. He will be robbed when
on foot, on horseback or in the tram-car ; when paying toll
at the bridge, or getting his ticket at the steamboat piers ;
when wrangling at the post-office or the telegraph depart-

THE EYIL OF THE EAST. 299

ment. He ought to take this great principle as a rule :
Every time he has to pay, he will be swindled from outside ;
and everytime he has to be paid, he wiU be swindled from
within. Thus there is the theft exterior and the theft
interior ; the swindle active and the swindle passive ; the
swindle positive and the swindle negative. It has quite a
classification of its own, and one that must be firmly
defined.

More than once a straightforward Frenchman said to me :
"It is impossible to do business honestly, here. You are
so swindled, first by one person and then by another, that
you must cheat like everybody else, or you will soon be
ruined." And, he added, with an engaging air, " But we
always try, you know, to deal fairly by our friends and
compatriots ! "

A payment is a tremendous business. Each party counts
the money over three or four times, turns over the silver,
refuses such pieces as are worn or defaced, bites the
medjidies to see that they are not of lead, and makes the
louis dor ring on the table with imperturbable coolness.
If you were a famous coiner of bad money, or a notorious
thief, one could not take more precautions to be sure that
your money were sound and true. Don't be vexed ; your
Western susceptibilities must be put aside, for you are in a
centre of brigandage here that is univei'sal and permanent.
Eacli* does his best to defend himself, nobody is bound to
trust you ; and, if you trust other people, then, so much the
worse for you !

The natives do more than this. If they have to get
change for a medjidie they will not part with their
medjidie until they have counted and checked every

300 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

piastre and every para. Not money only, but goods also
are counterfeit in Turkey, where the art of forgery has no
limits. Let us take a few examples from the wine trade.

In Pera and Galata you will find Grande Chartreuse at
3 francs 50 cents the litre ; Martell's Three Star Brandy
(Fine Champagne) at 2 francs 50 cents a bottle ; Benedic-
tine at 2 francs 40 cents, and liqueurs of the best brand at
1 franc 80 cents. Needless to say that such liquids are
only fairly successful imitations. The manufacturer's eye
might be deceived, but not his palate. The Levantine
tradesman, in cleverly dishonest fashion, has bottles made
exactly like the genuine ones, with labels and corks accur-
ately branded, capsules of tinfoil ; nothing is wanting.
The finest thing is, that he never omits to print the famous
warning " Every bottle not bearing our signature is counter-
feit," or, " Each label bears the words in red letters,
" Imitators ivill be punished by laiv." All this is on each
sham bottle as well as the signature and advertisement in
red letters. The forger is even mindful to reproduce the
name of the lithographer of the genuine label, which is
printed in tiny letters at its corner.

As to the liquids contained in such precious bottles, they
are imitated with some skill. But on tasting them one
soon perceives that they have been made with a common
soi*t of alcohol, and that their aroma is due to artificial
means. Germany concocts a variety of such beverages,
essence of fine champagne, of Curasao, of maraschino, etc.,
and she even furnishes a dry powder with which to make
wines. In selling a litre of Grande Chartreuse at 3 francs
50 cents, the wholesale and retail merchant make a total
profit of 50 per cent, which reduces the cost price of this

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 301

imitation of P. Gamier to 1 franc 75 cents. But for the
Oriental, whose primary condition is that the thing be
cheap, such shams suffice. He looks at the label, and
thinks that he has got his money's worth.

The same thing with "wines. Everywhere you will find
Chateau Latitte, Chateau la Rose and Leoville, which vary
from 2 francs to 4 francs 20 cents the bottle. The exterior
is quite correct ; the label has all its distinguishing sim-
plicity ; on the long cork stands the name of the fortunate
proprietor of these famous brands ; the seal is irreproach-
able ; everything down to the packing of the case is imi-
tated with scrupulous fidelity, if such words as " scrupulous "
and " fidelity " may be used in such a connection. Yet,
just calculate the cost price, and you cannot for an instant
doubt but that the whole is an impudent forgery.

You enter a restaurant and ask for Medoc. The waiter
brings you a bottle which bears a glass medallion at its
neck, on which is printed the name of the vintage. You
uncork your compatriot carefully and find the wine has a
bouquet absolutely unknown to you. But the monstrous
mixture is powerful enough, as the considerate manufacturer
has not forgotten to add a goodly quantity of spirit dis-
tilled from potatoes. The colour is superb; and to get
this, there has evidently been a lavish use of elder berries,
in which such a thriving trade is done on the banks of the
blue Danube. Now, would you like to know what this
precious wine is 1 The explanation is at once simple and
instructive.

Every year Constantinople is visited by Hungarian,
German, and Italian wine merchants, who invite restaurant-
keepers to give them orders. As their wines are extremely

302 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

cheap, the restaurant-keepers are only too glad to give
them the preference. The customers, however, of such
restaurants prefer French wines. So what has to be done 1
The buyer makes it a siiie qua non with the seller that
the wine shall be delivered in bottles exactly like Bordeaux
bottles in size and shape, with label, seal and capsule
attached, precisely similar to a model which he gives. This
model is that of the French wine merchant, who hitherto
had supplied him with the genuine article. Then, the
unscrupulous contractor gets the counterfeit labels made in
Germany or Hungary ; he dresses up the bottles in their
imitation French uniform, and thus the restaurant-keeper
can offer his customers Bordeaux that in truth does not
cost him dear.

This dishonest traffic produces three results. It robs the
Bordeaux firms of their customers ; it makes it impossible
for French commercial agents ever to defy such dishonest
competition ; and it brings our products into disrepute in
the East. The consumer at length discovers that there is
a marked deterioration in the quality of these sham wines,
when he will not fail to be informed that the fault lies with
the French wine merchants who adulterate their wines.
Indeed it has actually been stated (we quote the exact
words) that "there are no longer any wines in France
since the invasion of the phylloxera and all the Bordeaux
and Burgundy are nothing more than artificial mixtures."
The inference from such a charming statement is of course
obvious, viz., that the Hungarian and Italian wines are far
purer and cost much less. In such way it is that our trade
with the Levant dwindles and decreases. The fraud has
been exposed more than once ; but no serious effort has so

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 303

far been clone to put a stop to it. A French Chamber of
Commerce exists at Constantinople, but this institution is
mainly occupied in protecting the interests of French mer-
chants in the East, and not of French merchants in France.
So with Paris articles, such as candles, chocolate, perfumery,
etc. In this latter branch of trade we came across a
sample of tlie art of reproduction which deserves honourable
mention. Empty bottles of a certain famous scent which
have the firm's name stamped on the glass are bought
back or manufactured, and are then filled with scent of a
fourth-rate sort ; but care is taken that the cork be soaked
in the real perfume. When a customer comes he is made
to sniff the cork ; and as he cannot smell any further than
the tip of his nose, he has to pay three or four francs for
cheap alcohol highly diluted and rendered aromatic by a
few drops of some sort of essence.

Of late years the Geruians have imitated many of our
products. Everybody knows that. Funnier still, other
Germans have now begun to counterfeit those who were
first in the field ; it is the imitation of imitation, as Miirger
said. But where will it all stop 1

Thei'e is a corporation in Constantinople to which public
attention ouglit specially to be drawn. It is the estimable
corporation of chemists. An apothecary in the East is a sort
of high-class grocer who sells his wares to customers that
are ill. In France, he is always a person who, either
thoroughly or superficially, has made certain special studies
and who considers himself entitled to sell at a high price
that which costs him very little. But as a rule he sells you
genuine drugs. Not so in Turkey. In Pera, doubtless
there are two or three good chemists who have passed

304 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

examinations other than those of the Malade Imaginaire.
But the point lies how to discover these. Their prices at
all events are so high that poor people avoid their shops
and go to wretched third-rate places in Galata or Stamboul
where they buy potato starch, believing it to be sulphate
of quinine, granulated bread-crumbs, or sugar and water
coloured with hollyhocks.

You are so lucky as to have a good doctor, in whom you
can put faith, and him you ask to name some trustworthy

chemist. He replies : " Go to Z ; he is a young man,

just starting in business, and has his reputation to make.
Tell me afterwards what effect his drugs produce upon
you, and I will take note of this, so that I may find out
how far I can trust this young chemist." That is assuring,
is it not ? You are turned into a machine to test the
purity of an apothecary's drugs, and you become a sort of
walking alcoometer ! This reminds me of a Paris doctor,
full of wit, if not of integrity, who often would say to
me : " Take this medicine, if you really wish to ; if it
does not do you any harm, it won't do you any good ! "

The poor Mussulmans have no such matters for em-
barrassment. They bring the patient's shirt and a cruse
of water to their imam, who repeats a few prayers and
lays his hands on the objects. The patient dons the shirt
and drinks the water ; nor does this hinder his recovery.
If he can walk, he goes to one of the chief dervishes, lies
down before him on the ground, while the venerable old
man plants both feet upon him and treads him conscien-
tiously underfoot. We saw this operation performed upon
babies of one and two years old. One would tliink that
the imam, by walking thus upon their frail little bodies,

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 305

would break their bones and crush out their life. But no ;
the babies seemed to suffer little pain during so perilous a
gymnastic feat.

Chemists make us think of epidemics ; and that leads us
on to mention another abuse which we took greatly to
heart, and which results from that delightful institution
quarantine. At Constantinople everybody lives in per-
petual fear of cholera. As soon as a case of cholera is
reported to have occurred anywhere in Europe, quarantine
is instantly declared, which from four or five days may
abruptly be prolonged to fifteen. Let us, however, admit
that, thanks to such a system or to something else, Con-
stantinople has been protected for several years from
cholera, if not from all epidemic diseases.

The traveller arriving from Europe via Varna, learns on
his entrance of the Bosphorus that he must remain in
quarantine at Kavak for eight or nine days. This is the
first unpleasant surprise. The second is that the Austrian
Lloyd Steam Navigation Company will charge him 25
francs extra per diem during quarantine. Twenty-five
francs without wine — a higher price than that of the first
hotels in Switzerland, Paris or London ! The luckless
tourist will only get very second-rate food and attendance
for his money. Hundreds of foreigners are caught in this
trap every year. They utter cries of indignation and swear
that they will make the most awful complaints to head-
quartei-s. But once on land they trot about Stamboul and
forget this trifling annoyance. The quarantine nuisance
has been kept up for years like this, yet no one endeavour
to abate or abolish it. One hapless Pasha travelling with
his wife and daughter was nearly left as a pledge on board
U

3o6 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

the Lloyd steamer. His bill came to 750 francs for ten
days' quarantine ; and he had not got so much money — a
misfortune which may happen to any Pasha.

We are not desirous to examine seriatim all the diflerent
departments of trade and industry in Constantinople. Else
we might have to prepare a big volume entitled Dictionary
of Shams and Counterfeits ; and this publication could never
be completed. Yet let us say that if a man is willing to
live as the natives live, he can find things that are good in
quality and cheap in price. But if he cannot do witliout
certain European articles he is sure to pay a tremendously
high price for them, or else be content with wretched imita-
tions. The further he goes from Constantinople into the
interior of Turkey, the higher will be the price chai-ged.
In Mesopotamia a pair of boots costs 62 francs ; common
cloth, 15 francs a yard ; inferior tea, 11 francs a pound, a
bottle of ordinary cognac, 12 francs 50 cents ; and a bottle
of beer, 3 francs 50 cents.

At Constantinople even the prices are not uniform.
You pay more in Pera than in Galata, and more in Galata
than in Stamboul. For this reason a coffin-seller in the
European quarter wrote over his shop-entrance " Galata
Price " so as to decide customers who might still be hesi-
tating.

It is in the Bazaar of Stamboul that one may most pro-
fitably study the commerce of the East. This bazaar is
something colossal in proportion, and one can form no
proper idea of it without having visited it dozens of times.
It is this Bazaar which supplies the whole of Asiatic
Turkey as far as the Caspian Sea, the Persian frontier and
the valley of the Euphrates. All the local bazaars of

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 307

Ismidt, Broussa, Trebizond and Sivas, are nothing more
than its branch agencies. It receives annually more than
two hundred and fifty million francs' worth of merchandise.
Nothing is more fascinating than to wander tlu'ough these
long, vaulted galleries between lofty arcades striped
with black and white. The sides of the cupolas are
covered with quaint frescoes, the massive walls having
little narrow windows which admit bright rays that
illumine the obscurity, gilding the ostrich eggs and glass
vessels suspended from the roof and throwing bars of
light upon the rich stufis, silks, tapestries and brocade.
In the midst of all these vivid colours and lights a
dense crowd circulates, most of it attracted by curiosity.
Above each arcade the merchants hang out their signs,
which are either little boats, impaled cats, the horns of a
gazelle, pine-cones, or monkeys. The shops are built into
the walls of each gallery, like grottoes, and the seller sits
in front of them on a sort of raised platform encircled by
divans, and covered with carpets or matting. If a client
of importance arrives, coffee and cigarettes or a narghiU
are at once offered to him. The sides of the grotto open as
in a fairy scene, and reveal bale after bale, fold upon fold
of gorgeous stuffs, that are speedily piled up before the
spectator. Then the haggling or bazariek begins. The
seller uses all his wiles, and makes out his case with
wonderful eloquence. He is a consummate actor, with
irresistible bursts of dramatic frenzy. You are ruining
him ! You are robbing him of his last morsel of bread !
He loses, through you, his entire week's earnings !

If the buyer be a European, the scene requires a third
person, the interpreter. No sooner does the wretched tourist

3o8 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

show himself at the door of the bazaar than he is treacherously
assaulted by a band of dragomans; Jews, most of them, or
fit to be Jews. They dog his steps, walk round him, press
close to his elbow and shoulder, croaking out meanwhile
iheir offers of service. It is no good for the poor visitor to
try and shake them off; such parasites stick to him like
burrs and fix their claws in his great-coat. They go on
talking, even thougli he do not answer ; they track him if
he slips away ; and if he stop, they block his passage.
When the victim, losing all patience, sends them to the
devil, they make a bow and pretend to go there ; but, a
moment afterwards, they reappear. If you stop at a shop,
they join your debate, profiting by your ignorance of the
language. The merchant, though quite well able to speak
any language, pretends not to understand you. "Ne
deior ?" " What does he say 1" he asks the interpreter who
thereupon instantly takes possession of you, seeming wish-
ful to protect you from the merchant's rapacity. No
comedy was ever played to greater perfection. You end
by thinking that you have bought veritable treasures at
cost price, and in a moment of emotion, you slip a haksJieesh
into the interpreter's hand. This is the climax. The play
is over, and you are once more free. The sly interpreter
thanks you and goes back to tlie merchant who allows him
ten per cent, on the price of the article sold.

The bazaar dragomans have really marvellous cunning
and presence of mind. It comes very near the art of
divination. According to your age, your nose, your accent,
your look, they can foresee what it is that you want.
They have winks and imperceptible smiles which are their
secret language with the merchant. You are still hesitat-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 309

ing, while the price has already been fixed l)y the two
confederates. You are simply the man that pays. They
will recognise you directly you appear, and they recollect
the very article that you fancy. They remember, too, how
you came two years ago ; they can tell you what you
bought and how much you paid ; and they will instantly
show you the same article at a far cheaper price. Do you
want to pick up a necklace cheap? In a moment the
rumour circulates all through the bazaars, and you are
waylaid by forty merchants with forty necklaces all alike.
You should see with what lofty gestures the dragomaii
waves them off. "No, no," says he, "let the tchelehi
alone. The tchelehi knows what he wants ! " Yes, the
gentleman knows what he wants; but the dragoman knows
better still, and will diplomatically make you fall in with
his choice. He ends by getting hold of your name and
address. One fine morning he walks into your room laden
with articles which might tempt you. Don't you like this]
Would you I'ather have something else ? He opens the
door and calls in a col]eas;ue, standing outside on the
stairs. In two minutes you are surrounded by carpets,
yataghans, embroidered shawls, brass bowls and plates,
slippers, frankincense, etc. He pulls an old manuscript
copy of the Goran out of his pocket, which an aged priest
desires to sell ; then he displays earrings, amulets, and
attar-of- roses. It would need a fortune to buy it all. If
you don't send him packing, he will come back next day
with a fresh assortment, and his confederates will waylay
you at the corners of the streets. He talks or murders
any and every language ; but he only understands such
things as are to his advantage. He constantly quotes the

3IO THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

name of some exalted personage of your nationality who,
it appears, honoured him with his confidence. Your
consul and your ambassador are both customers of his.
He speculates at once upon people's vanity and impatience.

Take another scene of the same comedy. Suppose you
are a European knowing the languages of the country, and
so freed from the tyranny of an interpreter. You go to
the bazaars with a friend who has just arrived from Paris.
Never feel hurt if the merchant say to you in Turkish :
" Make your friend pay the price I ask, and we will split
the difference." And whatever you do don't be indignant
at such a proposal. In Turkey, such dirty tricks are played
by friend upon friend, by relation upon relation. The
voice of blood cannot silence that of so much fer cent.

The bazaar is a town \ it has its mosques, its fountains,
its restaurants, its exchange. It is a place of meetings and
of promenades ; a place where amorous intrigues are begun
and bewrayed, for Turkish women set a watch upon their
lords, using their female friends as spies. Mussulman law
forbids veiled women to enter the shops, as it is feared that
in their dark recesses other ti-ades may be carried on and
other bargains driven than those in printed calico and
flowered silk. The same law excludes boys from these shops,
and merchants may not keep youthful assistants to serve
customers. Turkish ladies of rank never enter shops in
Pera, but always sit in their broughams at the door, and
have things brought outside to them to look at. The
custom, however, is one that is gradually disappearing, and
there are many hanoums now whose sense of modesty does
not prevent them from sitting about in Frankish shops all
the afternoon.

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 31I

The Bazaar is surrounded by immense Hans ; in one,
Persian carpets are sold, in another raw wool, in a third
silks, stuffs, etc. The visitor must penetrate into the
narrow gloomy little shops in these Hans if he would get
correct ideas as to what is called Orientfil wealth and
magnificence. "We have no intention here of trying to
speak about what Th&phile Gautier has spoken with all
the sincerity of a passionate connoisseur, and all the consum-
mate art of a great man of letters. But we refer readers
to his pages, ablaze as they are with all the rich sunlight of
the East.

Such iunuense traffic as this in the bazaars explains the
great commercial importance of Constantinople. The
Eastern metropolis receives from Europe all her manuf:ic-
tures, and distributes them throughout Asia ; and this
privilege she owes to her incomparable position, placed as
she is between two continents and two seas.

CHAPTER XX.

THE LOCAL PRESS. — JOURNALISTIC TROUBLES. — THE LEECHES
OF THE PRESS BUREAU. CENSORSHIP AND SENSELESS-
NESS.—HOW BOOKS AND PLAYS ARE EDITED IN TURKEY.
CUSTOM HOUSE CRITICS AND THEIR LITERARY INSTINCT.

The intellectual activity of a country is measured by the
number and the worth of its journals and newspapers. In
this respect, the Pera thermometer stands at zero. There
are few large cities in which the Press is so utterly
insignificant.

The poor newspapers themselves are not wholly respon-
sible for tliis, which is mainly a result of that servile
bondage in which the entire Oriental press languishes.
For many reasons the Ottoman Government does not love
the light, or at any rate it desires to have the nionopoly of
the lamps. What it would prefer would be that no paper
should ever allude to it ; but, failing that, it has reduced
the Press to tolerance, and this tolerance to a minimum.
T!ie regime is the soothing, suave one of perpetual decrees
and arbitrary suspensions. It is well-nigh impossible for
the papers to speak of home policy, of religion, of the Sultan,

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 313

of the Governraent, of the array, of tinance. Only art and
literature remain as topics free for treatment. A sorry
theme indeed. Art and literature in Pera ! A proper dish
for Lent!

Newspapers are forbidden to reproduce articles from
European journals which might possibly sow seeds of dis-
content among the Turks. Nor are they allowed to protest
against abuses, point out reforms or insist upon improve-
ments. As political dogma they have to admit that every-
thing in Turkey is perfection, and consequently that any
effort at progress is needless and chimerical. The same
sort of thing goes on in another capital which is called
Pekin, in the extreme East. Decidedly it is a case of
" extremes meet ! "

Not a paragraph, not a line of any newspaper may be
published before having been duly " revised and corrected "
by the representatives of the Press Censorship who every
morning go the round of the newspaper offices in Pera and
Galata. They are not men of particular training or par-
ticular intelligence, and often they cannot seize the subtle-
ties of a language whether it be French or English. But
such austere boobies live in perpetual fear of drawing down
upon their fez the lightnings of the Grand Vizier. And
they prefer to err on the side of precaution, doggedly
suppressing all passages in a leader or a paragraph which
they do not rightly understand. Their general rule is,
"//■ in doubt, strike it out;" and scratch ! goes their red
pencil through all your night's work with its high-sounding
adjectives, (live syllabled words delight Perotes) striking
metaphors and glittering sentences. Suppose you write
anent Bulgaria, " the lazy pipkin seethes upon the flames

3M THE EVIL OF THE EAST,

of Europe." How mortifying to see such a graphic
metaphor doomed by dunderheads to the wastepaper basket !
But in such tortures the luckless Pera editor writhes every-
day. In the East, phrases and plump lady-tourists share
the same fate ; the censor manipulates the former, and the
custom-house officer, the latter. Despite such precautions,
a paper is often obliged to appear with one or two blank
columns, as an article may be suppressed at the last
moment and there is nothing ready to supply its place.
At the head of such white patches you read an obituary
notice to the effect that "At the request of the Censorship,
such and such an article has been consigned to the editorial
portfolio." A newspaper is not allowed to have a special
service of telegrams ; they are all opened_by the authorities.
It can only profit by the drowsy Havas and Reuter agencies,
the pot-au-feu of the entire Press ; even their scraps of
vague information, issued in excruciating French, are re-
viewed by the argus-eyed Ottomans, who suppress any
passage that is either disagreeable or compromising.

X<et not the luckless paper attempt to bring to light the
details of some huge fraud or official scandal. In a moment
a notice of suspension would be served upon it by the Porte,
to bring it to its senses, and compel it to be silent. A
slighter measure for checking such outspoken conduct is to
publish an edict, saying — "The newspapers are prohibited
from touching the Bulgarian question." And this mandate
will be followed next day by — " The subject of Egypt may
not at present be treated by the local Press." So it goes on ;
and in this way Turkey deliberately throttles public opinion.

The facts just given are in themselves sufficient, we
fancy, to excuse the beggarly miserable state of the Con-

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 315

stantinople Press. Each paper is a gelding, a eunuch, and
every morning the shears of Mehmed and the pruning hook
of Aristote repeat the horrid process of castration. If the
poor paper rebel, not scissoi-s are the instruments of torture
applied; but one fell sabre-stroke cuts off its head. Under
such conditions one may tolerate its note of grovelling
sycophancy, its bad grammar and bad taste when weaving
garlands of adjectives for the Sultan and his councillors.
On His Imperial Majesty's day of birth or of accession, the
newspapers illuminate their front page with a piece of truly
Corinthian prose, and let off their grandest literary fire-
works. Of course, in making such gaudy chains of superla-
tives, editors have an end in view other than that of tilling
their columns with fudge. By such verbal pyrotechnics and
such a noisy show of obedience and devotion, they can
manage to win pardon for some petty error or imprudence ;
such excess of servility is a means to secure for themselves
a few grains of independence.

This abject servility of the Press explains to our readers
why so many crimes can be committed in Turkey, why
abuses exist and why all progress is impossible. Public
opinion being thus gagged, the high are free to commit the
most flagrant acts of injustice, while the low become in-
different like fatalists, and even lose all sense of their rights.
The Government is thus able to wallow in its corruption,
for it has nothing to fear from tlie wrath of the masses.
Neither cries nor laments can get a hearing, Turkey being
one huge Tour de Nesles.

The Anglo-French and French newspapei's in Pei-a of
course represent various shades of political feeling, and all
try to make their readers believe that they are oflBcially

3l6 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

inspired. Thus one print has Hellenic sympathies, another
is devoted to the Bulgarian cause and bolsters up Prince
Ferdinand through thick ajid thin, while a third is reputed
to have a heavy subvention from the Russian Embassy. A
Pera paper is made up pretty much as follows. First, in
larger type, comes the leader, a paraphrase of Havas'
laconic telegrams. These telegrams are the gospel of the
day ; pegs on which to spin out a political sermon. If
Havas shabbily distribute none, then the leaders are cooked
up with paste, scissors, and an old copy of the Debats or
the Times. There are always copious extracts from the
European papers ; inoffensive bits of news but badly
chosen and badly assorted. The main paragraph of
interest among local news refers usually to some Embassy
fete or "diplomatic picnic," thougli great edification is also
to be got from reading the official list of promotions,
appointments, and decorations of Government functionaries.
Then come murders, thefts, fires and assaults, with a vague
tale or two about brigands who have roasted helpless
gardeners in petroleum, but whom the police have not yet
caught. Such stories gain in point and charm by being
told in Perote French and Levantine English. Add to
these, the dull gossip about the doings of " Pera Society,"
whether Mrs Frumpy is in town or at Therapia ; whether
a delightful dinner was given by Mrs Lumpy who " received
her guests with her well-known grace," and there you have
the whole paper, which costs twopence, and is certainly
dear at the price. Occasionally there may be some critical
notice of a concert or operatic performance. It is always
exaggerated — either over-sour or over-sweet. To such a
pass, then, has the Pera Press come ; and, we repeat, it

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 317

cannot be blamed for this. The unfortunate newspapers
do not even pretend to fill their pockets, but only try to
till their columns without drawing down upon themselves
a bastinado from the Government. The Government foi'bids
them to deal with higher subjects, so they must stop on the
ground-floor and interest themselves in the tittle-tattle of
the servants' hall. If it were not for blackmail, chantage,
no Perote journal could keep afloat. But that subject we
will not touch. The t'.vo Anglo-French newspapers are
the Levant Herald and the Oriental Advertiser, while
among those dailies published only in French, are the
Stainboul — the most piquant paper of all — the Turquie,
and the I'hare du Bosphore. Mr Edgar Whitaker is editor
and proprietor of the Levant Herald, the Oriental Advertiser
being carried on by Mr Bellis, a Greek. An Irishman of
undoubted wit and humour, Mr Baron Hanly, has the
management of the Starahoul ; and it is to him we owe it
if the paper he conducts be brighter and more readable
than the rest.

Fiist among Turkish papers stands the Tarik, which is
considered to be the official organ of the Government. Its
editor is a writer of merit, and a poet not without renown
in his own country. He is styled Excellency, a title which
struggling reporters in Europe, alas ! will never reach.
All official news regarding the Palace and the Ministry
appears in the Tarik, and is accurately and vividly repro-
duced by the Perote prints, who often take the pains of
summarising its leaders on the burning questions of Bulgaria,
or of England in Egypt. In such articles, however, there
is little beyond trite remarks and praise for the well-known
sagacity of the Ottoman Government.

3l8 . THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

The Terdjuman Haldkat counts as the second Turkish
journal, but its importance, either literary or political, is
nil. Among Greek papers^the JS'eoldgos and the Constantin-
oupolis take the lead, the former being very carefully
edited. The Armenians have several newspapers of their
own, such as the Arevelk, written in Turkish but printed in
the Armenian character. There are also Hebrew, Arabic,
Spanish and Persian papers, which all command a public.

Nearly all the chief Continental journals keep a paid
correspondent at Constantinople. The 7'imes, the Standard,
the Daily Xeivs, the Daily Chronicle, the Koelnischa Zeitung,
the Secolo, tlie Debats, the Temps all have their representa-
tives whose work is really far from easy, as they may not
telegraph the truth ; and often their messages are suppressed
by the censorship. In moments of crisis, the situation of
correspondent becomes critical also. During the stirring
events in Bulgaria, correspondents flocked thither from
Russia, Germany, Hungary, England, Roumania and Italy.
But what was their horror to find that they could not
despatch telegrams to their respective papers. Every tele-
gram was " edited " by a barbarous censor, who lopped off
any word or sentence which contained news, leaving some-
times little more than the signature and the address !

A plan adopted by Constantinople correspondents is to
send their telegrams under cover to a friend at Varna or
Sophia, begging him to send it on. This plan, if it succeed
now, failed signally during the worst period of the Bulgarian
embroglio ; for the Government doggedly refused to let
private telegrams be forwarded ; and the correspondents,
being unable to correspond, had dolefully to return. One of
these unfortunate persons had the imprudence once to send

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 3x9

his paper a story about the little lake which the Sultan
had had constructed in the park of Yildiz, and on which
His Majesty was wont to take pleasure-trips in a steam-
launch. It seems that, in order to fill this pond, Pera had
been left without water for several days. The indiscreet
journalist was promptly invited to leave Turkey, and until
the day of his going he was closely watched.

The censorship does not limit itself to worrying the
newspapers, but extends its tender mercies to the wliole of
literature. Some author has the audacity to publish a
pamphlet in Turkish. He must first send his manuscript
to a college of ulemas who examine it with closed doors.
If something in the pamphlet do not please them, they
calmly refuse to grant the necessary authorisation to print,
giving no explanation for such arbitrary conduct, and never
pointing out which was the objectionable passage. Thus
the new-born book is stifled in its cradle.

The censorship of books which enter and which leave
Turkey is another gross imposture. Let me briefly describe
my own experiences with the distinguished scholars who
preside over this literary lazaretto. I can vouch for the
facts as being strictly accurate.

On my arrival in Constantinople all my books were ex-
amined by a representative of the censorship. They were
then given back to me, and I was told that thirty-five
works (or about a hundred volumes) had been kept back
for further scrutiny. I was at a loss to imagine what
books they could be that had excited the suspicion or the
disgust of these fastidious book-tasters. And by dint of a
few medjidies judiciously distributed I discovered that th©
Index Eoapurgatoi'ius ran thus :

320 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

Chateaubriand Les Martyrs.

Voltaire Siecle de Louis XIV.

Bouillet Atlas de Gdograjihie.

Lord Byron's Works.

Poitou Voyage en Egypt.

Hugo Les Orientates.

Voltaire Theatre, etc.

The censors had also held back provisionally :

La Vie Privee et Puhlique au Moyen Age et d la Renais-
sance, by Jacob.

Costumes Religieux et Militaires (same author, and all the
other volumes in this series).

Don Gu^ranger : Sainte CecHe et la Sociiti Romaine.

Fredol Le Monde de la Mer.

Liais UEspace Celeste, and about a dozen others.

In a word, all the handsomely-bound books with engrav-
ings and coloured plates had been put in quarantine. The
knowing censors thought from their showy outside that
these works were of great value and that, being very
anxious to recover them, I should make any sacrifice to get
them out of their barbarous clutches. Indeed, by degrees
I managed to get back a certain number of books, but only
by spending a certain number of medjidids, while other
volumes were still retained. Most of these, after seven or
eight months' delay, were sent back to France addressed to
a friend of mine. The rest are lost, including Byron and
Victor Hugo. Perhaps by a little extra baksheesh I might
have succeeded in liberating these noble poets ; but 1 had
had enough of senseless censordom. Apropos of poets,
Dante is now shut out of Turkey, because in a part
of the Divine Commedia, he has put Mahommed into

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 32 1

Hell ! On my leaving Constcantinople I was asked if
I had got among my luggage any translation of the
Coran ! Oh ! childish question ! For in Paris anyone
can buy a copy for twopence! The censorship of plays and
operas is no less ridiculous. The performance of certain
pieces is interdicted to-day and authorised to-morrow, then
once more suspended, and so on. The Ballo in Maschera
and Don Carlos may not be performed because there are a
conspiracy and a murder of a prince in them ; the same
objection is raised to the Huguenots, Macbeth, etc.

In the East the sole existence permitted is the vegetable
existence. Every facility is granted to you for that, but
the cabbage must only never take upon itself to think !

CHAPTER XXI.

THE FUTURE OP TURKEY ; WHAT WILL IT BE 1 — POSSIBLE RE-
CONSTRUCTION OP A GREEK EMPIRE. PROM MOSCOW TO

STAMBOUL. THE BANQUET OP NATIONS. THE EVIL OF

THE EAST DRIVEN PURTHER EASTWARD.

We are neither diplomatists nor sonnambulists. We have
never had the honour of interviewing M. de Bismarck,
General Kaulbars nor any of those great persons who decide
the fate of empires. We have never been present, not
even when hidden under the table, at a meeting of the
three Einperoio. So that it is impossible for us to know
what future is really in store for Turkey, if indeed these
exalted personages know so much.

To wish 'to foretell the march and issue of events in the
East would be an act of foolish presumption. With each
day unforeseen complications arise ; the bonds of alliances
are loosed and there are for ever fresh combinations, sudden
as those of the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. The critical
period dates from the deplorable Crimean campaign which
cost France so dear ; the solution of the question seems
now near at hand. That is what everybody knows for

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 323

certain. What solution will that be? That is what
everybody cannot tell.

We can only report upon the actual position of rival
nations and weigh the value of their moral and material
resources. We can state wliat is the respective situation
of the Oriental peoples and what are their aspirations.
The law of nationality is perhaps not an absolute one in
political matters, but it has an undeniable influence on the
inarch of events. The examples furnished by Italy,
Germany and lately by Bulgaria prove this.

In examining the East one recognises a primary and
incontestable truth, viz : that all European Turkey, the
islands of the Archipelago and all the littoral of Asia
Minor are Greek-Hellenic by blood, language, religion,
interests and afiection. The inhabitants of these parts
long for the time when they sliall again belong to their
mother country ; it is the Grecia irredenta. Surely such
aims are ambitious, considering the actual condition of
this little State, but that is not to say that such aims are
absolutely cliinierical.

Greece, properly so-called, has only 1,700,000 inhabi-
tants; let us add 2,500,000 for the populations scattered
throughout European Turkey and 1,400,000 for Asiatic
Turkey and we get a total of 5,600,000. From this
number must be deducted such pseudo-Greeks as call them-
selves Hellenes because they hate the Turks ; and there
are others who from various causes have lost their sense of
patriotism, and their love of country. Let us then put the
total roundly at 5,000,000 Greeks. "We have already
spoken elsewliere in this book of the race's wonderful
vitality, of its rapid increase, and of its singular power of

3*4 THE EVIL OF TBE EAST.

assimilation. We may calculate that in fifty years thei'e
will be nine millions of Greeks ; and that in a century
their number will exceed twenty-five millions. When that
day comes, can Europe afford to disregard their importance 1

Let us not forget that in European Turkey the Greeks
are more numerous than the Turks ; they form more than
half of the total population (2,500,000 Greeks out of
4,790,000 inhabitants). At Smyrna, in Asia Minor, there
are 1 20,000 Greeks against 40,000 Turks. Add to this that
in these countries the Greeks have nearly all the commerce
and industry in their hands, besides all the lesser trades,
and many of the wealthy banking establishments.

They possess most of the schools, while the entire sea-
board is virtually theirs. We may, then, without rashness,
predict that the coming century will see the reconstruction
of a great Greek empire in the East.

So much for the future. But from now to then, what
will be the course of events? If we review all the pheno-
mena of European politics for the past century, if we
consult all the most competent authorities on the Eastern
question, it is no longer possible to doubt that sooner or
later Russia will come to Constantinople. She will come
there, because that is her traditional aim ; because it is of
paramount interest to her to establish herself at the gate of
the two continents ; and finally because she possesses the
power and the resources necessary to realise so grand a
scheme.

The opportunity has hitherto been wanting to the
Emperor Alexander to sever this new Gordian knot.
When such severance occurs, there will be tremendous
strife among the European Powers, and one of them will

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 325

certainly sacrifice the Dardanelles so as to obtain the
valuable alliance or Russia.

The situation has already become greatly changed since
Russia crossed the Balkans, nor could the Adrianople forti-
fications nor the ramparts of Tchataldja check the Czar's
eagles in their flight towards San Sophia.

Russia again has got a military stronghold in Batoum
which slie has transformed into a formidable seaport town.
It is a great step forward in the direction of Trebizond and
Erzeroum. Samsoun and luebole will later be her prize ;
the Black Sea will become a Russian lake ; and the eagles
of Muscovy will encompass Constantinople on the right
hand and on the left, pouncing upon their prey from the
European as from the Asiatic side.

Such a prospect has nothing terrifying in it for France.
For what, after all, does she care about the fate of the
Black Sea or about the nation that rules the Dardanelles ]
One thing alone ought to claim all our interest in the
East, viz., the fate of those Christians placed under our
moral protectorate. But never let us compromise ourselves
in such a piece of Quixotic chivalry as the bolstering-up of
Turkey, an ally at once burdensome and impotent.

How far does Russia intend to respect the rights of
Mussulmans who have lived on European territory for four
centuries 1 Does she dream of a Turco-Russian agreement
— some kind of modus vivendi which shall yet preserve the
phantom of the Osraanli's might upon the Bosphorus?
From Russian diplomatists, anything, everything may be
expected, even the sight of Holy Russia protecting Turkey
against her friends of yesterday, — all of them more or less
disinterested succourers of the Sick Man.

?26 THE EVIL OF THE EAST.

What, too, will be the respective situation of Greek and
Slav in these regions? The Hellenes cherish a profound
antipathy for the Russians; they already imagine that
Turkey in Europe is their property by right. How then
will they tolerate the new invader 1 Will they be content
with an enlargement of territory on the side of Thessaly
and with a few islands of the Archipelago 1

On to all these grave questions, other lesser ones are
grafted, for all the European Povvers have interest in the
East.

England already owns Cyprus, and she does not intend
to let it go, being a nation without any sense for restitution.
She will also make a point of securing either on the Adana
or Lattaquia side a line of route towards the Euphrates
valley and the Persian Gulf. Germany will plead for her
colonies in Palestine, and for the necessity of their proper
expansion. France will claim the Lebanon district, which
has for years been under her moral protectorate, and the
populations of which would hail her as an emancipator.
Finally Russia, already omnipotent at Jerusalem, will
probably desire to establish a station on the Suez Canal
route, reserving thus for her fleet the means of making a
naval attack upon India, which her armies threaten by
land. Austria, who was promised Macedonia and many
other compensations, will complain that she has been for-
gotten. Crushed, strangled between the Russian colossus
that will block the issues of the Danube, and the Teuton
colossus that will talk of completing the work of German
unity, bitten, too, in the heel by Italy, poor harrassed
Austria will doubtless have to pay the expenses incurred by
the Triple Alliance !

THE EVIL OF THE EAST. 327

And what will become of Turkey when all the Gargan-
tuas of Europe give rein to their monster appetites ?
Evidently, her position will be a most precarious one, for
she will find herself confronted with the most civilized
nations in Europe and who regard her as a semi-barbarous
people. For four centuries she has lost five minutes a day
on all her neighbours. As a consequence, the discrepancy
is now a formidable one, and it is diflBcult nowadays to look
upon Turkey as a European nation.

Admitting even that by some compromise more or less
practicable she is able to keep Constantinople, her centre
of action and of influence will probably be transferred to
Asia, to those high table-lands overlooking the Euphrates.
And with such removal would all trouble for her cease?
Alas ! we fear not, for then the fight between Turk and
Arab would ensue, who, though their creeds be the same
and their customs similar, mutually cherish seeds of anta-
gonism.

As will be seen the Eastern Question still e.xists in the
East. But it may drift gradually further from Europe
towards the Indian Ocean, like those cyclones that, having
devastated whole countries disappear beyond the horizon.
Yet distant rumblings tell us that their fury is not yet
appeased, but that it has burst anew upon remoter lands.

THE EVD.

APPENDIX.

While this book was going through the press, we chanced to fall in
with a little pamphlet which has become excessively rare, the first
instalment of a work to be entitled "Minor Memoirs of Turkey," and
edited in excellent style by an Englishman. It bears the date 188G, and is
full of curious details and promised revelations of the most exciting sort.
Unfortunately, it was seized by the Egyptian Government immediately
after its appearance. We extract from this document the following
edifying list of Bakshecslis with which this unique pamphlet ends :

List of Baksheeshs beceived by
Dignitaries of the Ottoman Court: —

Turkish
Pounds.
Remitted by J. Effeudi and
the Directors of a
Galata Bank 125,000

Remitted by Baron to

the Court Chamber-
lains 60,000
Agent: A... Effendi
Remitted to the Palace for

the Railway Comi>any 50,000
Agent : A Galata Bank
Remitted to the Palace for

the... Cannon Factory 100,000

Agent: B

Remitted to the Palace for
the concession of the
Constantinople waters 40,000

Agent: T Bey

Remitted to the Palace for
cloth merchants' con-
tracts 30,000

Agent :

Remitted to the Palace for
the settlement of the
accounts of a Galata
Bank 100,000

Agent: The Bank Itself
etc., etc., etc.

From a Railway Com

pany

Turkish

Pounds.

30,000

Bey, secretary

5000

Bey, secretary

5000

Bey, chamberlain

5000

Pasha

5000

Pasha

6000

Pasha, minister

4000

Pasha

5000

Eflfeudi

3000

Various Fees

7000

Remitted hp A... Effendi

75,000

From tlie Tobacco Monopoly

Company

Turkish

Pounds.

50,000

:Bey

5000

Bey

5000

Bey

5000

Agha

5000

Pasha

10,000

Pasha

5000

Pasha

5000

Pasha, minister

5000

Pasha

5000

Pasha

5000

15,000

"This sum forms a small total of baksheeshs amounting to 900,000
Turkish pounds, or 13,800,000 francs swallowed up by the Ottoman
Court. These few figures shew to what level the morality of Court
officials trusted by the Sultan, has sunk. The Ottoman Court sells
itself to the last and highest bidder. Further comment is superfluous."
(pp. 19-20 of Minor Memoirs of Turkey, Part I., by Douva-ed-Erir Bey).

16, Henuiktia Street, Covent Garden,..
Ai'RiL, 1888.

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A JOURNEY DUE SOUTH;

TRAVELS IN SEARCH OF SUNSHINE,

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a

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THE " ASSOMMOIR." (me Prelude to "1Ia=.-a.")

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GERMINAL; OR, MASTER AND MAN.
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WIFE.
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28 VIZETELLY &* CO:S NEW BOOKS &> NEW EDITIONS.

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1.— THE MYSTERY OF ORCrVAL, AND THE GILDED CLIQUE.

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6.-D0SSIER NO. 113, AND THE LITTLE OLD MAN OF BA-
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8.— THE OLD AGE OF LECOQ, THE DETECTIVE.

9.-THE CATASTROPHE. lO.-THE DAY OF RECKONING.

11.— THE SEVERED HAND, AND IN THE SERPENTS' COILS.
12.— BERTHA'S SECRET, AND WHO DIED LAST P
13.— THE CRIME OF THE OPERA HOUSE.

14.— THE MATAPAN AFFAIR, AND A FIGHT FOR A FORTUNE.
16.— THE GOLDEN PIG.

16.-THE THUMB STROKE, AND PRETTY BABIOLE.
17.-THE CORAL PIN. 18.-HIS GREAT REVENGE.

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THE DRAMA OF THE RUE DE LA PAIX. By A. Belot.

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A NEW LEASE OF LIFE, & SAVING A DAUGHTER'S

DOWRY. By E. About.

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BLUE-EYED META HOLDENIS, & A STROKE OF DIPLO-

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THE GODSON OF A MARQUIS. By A. Theuriet.

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THE TOWER OF PERCEMONT & MARIANNE. By Gborqb

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of it."— Ilhistraled London News.

THE LOW-BORN LOVER'S REVENGE. By V. Cherbuliez.

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THE NOTARY'S NOSE, AND OTHER AMUSING STORIES.

By E. About.

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DOCTOR CLAUDE ; OR, LOVE RENDERED DESPERATE.

By H. Malot. Two toIs.

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THE THREE RED KNIGHTS; OR, THE BROTHERS'

VENGEANCE. By P. F^val.

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GABORIAU'S SENSATIONAL NOVELS.

IN PERIL OF HIS LIFE.

"A story of thrilling interest, and admirably translated."— Sumiay ThMi,

THE LEROUGE CASE.

" M. Qaboriau is a skilful and brilliant writer, capable of so diverting the attention and
interest of his readers that not one word or line in his lk)ok will be skipped or read care-
lessly."—^amp«AJr« Advertiser.

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.

•'The interest is kept up throughout, and the story is told graphically and with a good
deal of art." — London Figaro.

LECOQ THE DETECTIVE. Two Vols.

"In the art of forging a tangled chain of complicated incidents involved and inex-
plicable until the last link is reached and the whole made clear, Mr. Wilkie Collins is
equalled, if not excelled, by M. Gaboriau." — Brighton Herald.

THE GILDED CLIQUE.

"Full of incident, and instinct with life and action. Altogether this is a nio»t
fascinating book." — Hampshire Advertiter.

THE MYSTERY OF ORCIVAL.

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sant result. The ability displayed is imquestionable." — S/trffield Independent,

DOSSIER NO. 113.

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never allowed to flag." — J>umbarton Herald.

THE LITTLE OLD MAN OF BATIGNOLLES.
THE SLAVES OF PARIS. Two Vols.

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skilL" — Oxford and Cambridge Journal,

THE CATASTROPHE. Two Vols.

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vast resource in incident and of wonderful ingenuity in constructing and unravelhiig
thrilling mysteries." — Aberdetn JournaL

THE COUNT'S MILLIONS. Two Vols.

" To those who love the mysterious and the sensational, Gaboriau's stories are irre-
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absolute fidelity ; and the interest with which he contrives to invest his characters proves
that exaggeration is unnecessary to a master." — Society.

INTRIGUES OF A POISONER.

" The wonderful Sensational Novels of Entile Gaboriau." — Gkibe.

VTZETELLY 5- CO:S NEW BOOKS &» NEIV EDITIONS. 31

In demy Ato, handsomely printed and bound, %nth gilt edges, price 12s.

A HISTORY OF CHAMPAGNE;

WITH NOTES ON THE OTHER SPARKLING WINES OF FRANCE.
By henry VIZETELLY.

Chkvauer or the Order of Fbanz-Joskf.

WIKK JimOB FOR GREAT BRITAIN AT THE VIEXKA ASD PARIS EXHIBITIOSS OF 1S78 AXD 1S78.

Zlkstrated with 350 Engravings,

FROM ORIGINAL SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS, AXCIEXT MSS., EARLY PRIKTKD
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32 VIZETELLY Sf CO:S NEW BOOKS *• NEW EDITIONS.

MR. HENRY VIZETELLY'8 POPULAR BOOKS ON WINE.

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FACTS ABOUT PORT AND MADEIRA,

GLEANED DURING A TOUR IN THE AUTUMN OF 1877.

By henry vizetelly,

WlKE JCROR FOR GkEAT BRITAIN AT THE ViENNA AND PaRIS EXHIBITIONS OF 1873 AND 1878.

With 100 niustrations from Original Sketches and Photographs.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
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FACTS ABOUT CHAMPAGNE,

AND OTHER SPARKLING WINES.

COIXKCTED DURING NUMEBOrS VlSlTS TO THE CHAMPAGNE AND OTHER VlTICTLTURAL DlSTKICTI

OF France and the Principal remaining Wine-pkodvcing Countries or Europx.
IlluBtrated with 112 Engravings from Sketches and Photographs.

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FACTS ABOUT SHERRY,

CLEANED IN THE VINEYARDS AND BODEGAS OF THE JEREZ, & OTHER DISTRICTS.
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Price Is. in ornamental cover ; or Ix. 6d. cloth gilt.

THE WINES OF THE WORLD,

CHARACTERIZED AND CLASSED.

eradbiUT, Agnew, & Ck).,)

[PrinteA, Whitefri«r*

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SOUTH.R!5rorNr«.AC,Ur.
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